The Spirits' Revenge
by Supervillegirl
Summary: The spirits are getting sick of Shawn pretending he's psychic. They decide to take revenge on him. Season 3 story.
1. Chapter 1

The Spirits' Revenge

Prologue

Amanda Walker crossed her arms, glaring into the mist around her.

A man walked up to her. "You okay?"

Amanda glared at him. "No, I'm not. I'm dead. And on top of that, I'm being impersonated."

The guy frowned. "Someone is stealing your identity?"

"You could say that," growled Amanda. "It's this psychic that's pretending he's channeling me to solve his stupid crime."

The guy looked closely at her. "Shawn Spencer?"

Amanda looked over at him. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

The guy shook his head annoyingly. "That fake has been 'channeling spirits' for two and a half years."

"You're telling me," said a bald guy who walked up to them. "He told the SBPD that he was 'communing with my spirit' in order to pin down the suspect."

A blonde guy walked up. "Yeah. In order to get my murder case reopened, he told the chief that he'd spoken to me from beyond the grave."

"He pretended to be channeling me through a cat," said a blonde woman in annoyance. "Did a horrible job at the impersonation. I was an actress, not a dancer."

"I heard he held a séance for a guy who turned out to be alive," said another woman.

A tall, bald man walked up. "He pretended to talk to my cars to pin down this guy who killed me."

"He and his best friend took turns being psychic to find my murderer," said a guy. "All just to impress the guy's uncle."

An elderly man joined their group. "He supposedly channeled my spirit at my estate auction."

"I heard he pretended to channel a ghost, 'cause this guy thought he was being haunted," said a woman. "Turns out, the guy just had some personality disorder."

Amanda looked around at them. "So…he just pretends to be a psychic? He fakes the whole thing? Makes a profit off of it, while some of us are actually trying to get messages to our loved ones?"

One of the spirits narrowed his eyes at her. "You sound like you have a plan."

Amanda nodded. "I say we do something about it."

"What do you have in mind?" asked the blonde actress.

They all gathered closely, eager to teach this pseudo-psychic a lesson.

"Spencer needs a taste of his own medicine," said Amanda, looking around at the others. "He wants to be a psychic?" She smiled wickedly. "We'll give him psychic."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter One

Shawn Spencer walked into the police station with Burton Guster in tow behind him. He sauntered up to Detective Juliet O'Hara's desk.

"Good morning, Jules," smiled Shawn.

"Morning, Shawn," said Juliet. "You're looking especially chipper this morning."

"Well, I can't help it," said Shawn. "You just have that effect on the room."

Juliet smiled at him. "What are you doing here, Shawn?"

Shawn put a hand to the side of his head. "I had a feeling I was needed."

"Well, you're not," said Detective Carlton Lassiter as he walked up, placing a hand on Shawn's shoulder. "So, why don't you scurry on back to your office and let the grown-ups handle the police work."

Shawn frowned, lowering his hand. "Wow, Lassie, I'm sensing some serious work stress vibes coming off of you."

"The only stress I'm feeling right now is the stress of having you interfering with my investigations," said Lassiter, taking his hand off of Shawn's shoulder and heading to the front of Juliet's desk.

"Ah-ha!" exclaimed Shawn. "So, there is a case you guys are working on. I knew it. The spirits never lie."

"The spirits told you to come?" asked Lassiter.

"Oh, definitely," Shawn told him. "They told me that I would probably be needed today."

"Well, tough luck," said Lassiter with a smug smile. "We have everything under control. Bye, now." He headed over towards his desk.

Shawn looked down at Juliet, frowning. "He's extra cranky today."

"I don't think he got any sleep," said Juliet, shuffling through the papers on her desk. "Hey, Gus."

"Hello, Juliet," greeted Gus.

"Lassiter!" Chief Karen Vick called from the doorway of her office. "O'Hara! My office, now."

Lassiter and Juliet got up from their desks and began to head towards the chief's office. Chief Vick was about to turn around to head back into her office when she spotted Shawn and Gus.

"You, too, Mr. Spencer," said Chief Vick, heading back into her office.

Lassiter froze as Juliet walked into the chief's office. Shawn smiled smugly at Lassiter and headed towards the office with Gus. Lassiter clenched his jaw and walked into the chief's office, Shawn and Gus not far behind him.

"What do ya got, Chief?" asked Shawn.

"We just got a call from the landlord down at Sunrise Apartments," said Chief Vick from behind her desk. "One of his residents has not turned in his rent and has not been answering his door."

"Maybe he's just avoiding him," Lassiter suggested.

"He's been trying to contact him for three days," said Chief Vick. "He won't answer his phone, either. So, he used his key to enter the apartment and found an empty apartment. There were signs of a struggle."

"Wait, if he was missing, wouldn't his work have called when he didn't show up?" asked Juliet.

"He's an author," said Chief Vick. "He lives off of his books. I need the four of you to head down there immediately."

"Will do, Chief," said Shawn. "I'll go check it out." He turned to head out of the office.

"Ride with the detectives, Spencer," Chief told him.

Shawn spun back around with a nod. "That's just what I was about to do."

Lassiter stepped closer to the chief's desk. "Chief, do we really need him? I mean, he's kind of a liability."

"Do I have to remind you how many cases Shawn has helped to solve, Detective?" Chief Vick pointed out.

Lassiter stared at her for a moment. "Right…"

"This is one of Santa Barbara's more renowned citizens," said Chief Vick. "The media will be all over his disappearance. I want as many people on this as possible. Go."

Lassiter and Juliet walked out of the office as Shawn and Gus followed.

"Dude, we gotta solve this case," said Shawn.

"Obviously, Shawn," Gus told him.

"No, I mean, can you imagine the attention we would get when we find this author?" asked Shawn. "The media is already gonna be covering this because he's kinda famous. They'll be all over us when we solve it."

Gus and Shawn walked out of the station and followed the detectives towards Lassiter's car.

"Just promise you won't be overdramatic," Gus muttered.

"Gus, when have you ever known me to be overdramatic?" asked Shawn.

Gus glared at him. "Do you really want me to answer that?"

Shawn shook his head. "No, not really."

They made it to the car, piling into the back as Juliet and Lassiter got in the front. Lassiter peeled out of the lot and headed through the city streets towards the apartment complex.

"When we get there, I want no monkey business from you, Spencer," Lassiter growled.

"What if Clyde kidnapped him?" asked Shawn, leaning up between the front seats. "You gonna let me get down to monkey business then?" He looked at Gus. "Of course, that would make me Clint Eastwood and you Geoffrey Lewis."

"I highly doubt an orangutan kidnapped the guy," said Lassiter.

"Well, how would you know?" asked Shawn. He frowned suddenly and put his hand to his head. "Wait a minute…" He plastered his hand to the side of Lassiter's head.

Lassiter ducked his head away from Shawn's hand. "Get off me!"

Shawn withdrew his hand, looking up at Lassiter. "Oh, I see…You were an orangutan in your previous life."

"Explains a lot," Gus nodded.

"Yeah, it does," said Shawn.

"Alright, enough from you two," said Lassiter. "Just be grateful you're getting to tag along."

"Gotcha, Clyde," said Shawn, leaning back into his seat.

"And don't call me Clyde," Lassiter shot at him.

Shawn frowned. "Can I call you Bubbles?"

"Spencer…" Lassiter growled.

"How about Mighty Joe Young?" suggested Shawn.

"Spencer!" yelled Lassiter. "Clamp that mouth shut and keep it that way for the rest of the drive."

Shawn glanced over at Gus, sharing an amused grin.

Within fifteen minutes, they arrived at Sunrise Apartments, parking and getting out of the car. The four of them walked into the apartment lobby, approaching a door marked "Landlord." Lassiter rapped on the door, grabbing his badge from his belt. The door opened, and a man stood in the doorway.

Lassiter shoved his badge towards the landlord. "SBPD. We need to get into the author's apartment."

"Of course," said the landlord, closing his door and leading them to the second floor.

When they reached the door, Lassiter pulled his gun out, getting ready.

"Is that really necessary?" asked Juliet.

"The perp could still be in there," said Lassiter.

"After kidnapping him, like, a week ago?" said Juliet.

"Can't be too careful," said Lassiter.

Juliet rolled her eyes as the landlord unlocked the door.

Lassiter shoved open the door, aiming his gun everywhere. "It's clean."

Shawn, Gus and Juliet walked into the apartment, taking in the evident struggle.

"Clean is not the word I'd use," said Shawn.

Shawn's eyes swept the apartment, noticing some missing areas on the bookshelves and tables where the dust had accumulated around blank spots. He saw that everything turned over wasn't broken, and it left no scratches on the hardwood. There was a large empty spot on the desk by the window.

As Lassiter and Juliet walked around the apartment to investigate, Shawn leaned over towards Gus.

"Dude, I don't think this guy was kidnapped," whispered Shawn.

Gus frowned, also talking in a whisper. "What do you mean? This place is a mess."

"Yeah, but nothing is broken," said Shawn. "Wouldn't you think that if you were fighting off someone, stuff would get knocked over and smashed or chipped or something? And wouldn't some of the overturned furniture leave scratches on the hardwood? This stuff looks like it was purposely turned over. And look at all the empty spaces on the tables and bookshelf."

"So, he doesn't like to decorate," said Gus.

"There are dust marks," said Shawn. "He obviously kept stuff there, but now it's gone. From the looks of it, they were picture frames. And the desk…" He gestured towards the desk at the window. "Tell me that's not where you'd keep a laptop."

"The kidnapper took it with him," shrugged Gus.

"And took the time to grab all the cords and the speakers _and_ the printer?" said Shawn.

Gus raised his eyebrows, impressed. "You might be on to something."

Shawn and Gus snuck over into a hallway, heading to the bedroom.

Shawn opened the closet, stepping back to show Gus the near empty closet. "And what kind of kidnapper bothers to take all your clothes." He looked back at the closet. "I think guy pulled a McCallum."

Gus frowned. "He kidnapped himself?"

"Well, come on, an author gets sick of the attention, so he fakes his own kidnapping and disappears to a small town where no one knows him," said Shawn. "Come on, let's go tell Lassie."

Shawn and Gus crept up the hallway, peeking around the corner. Lassiter and Juliet were still investigating; they hadn't noticed the guys had disappeared. Shawn and Gus snuck back over towards the door, pretending like they hadn't moved.

"So, you guys got anything yet?" asked Shawn.

Juliet looked over at him. "Not yet. I can't find any blood anywhere, so at least he's not hurt."

Shawn walked closer, stepping right past some overturned furniture. "Well, that's something, right?" He jolted suddenly, clutching at his heart. "Oh!" He frowned, flinging his hand out. "Oh, it's…It's too much! It's too much!" He stumbled over towards the pseudo-fireplace, clutching onto the mantle.

"Spencer, what the hell are you—" began Lassiter.

"Please, spare me!" cried Shawn.

"You're seeing the kidnapper?" asked Juliet.

"Oh, I can't take it!" cried Shawn, falling to his knees.

"Did they hurt him?" asked Juliet.

Shawn's head snapped up, frowning. "No…No struggle."

"No struggle?" said Lassiter, looking around at the mess. "How do you explain this?"

Shawn slowly stood up, stepping slightly away from the fireplace and putting his hands to his head. "Wait…He…He did it himself?"

"Why would he do this?" asked Juliet.

"He…He kidnapped himself?" said Shawn.

"What?" asked Juliet.

"The spirits say that…that there was no kidnapper," said Shawn. "They say that he…he staged this whole thing."

"And why would he do that?" asked Lassiter.

"Hey, how should I know?" said Shawn, lowering his hands. "The spirits only give me a little at a time."

Something collided hard into Shawn's back.

"Ow!" Shawn exclaimed, turning around and seeing a small stone beagle toppled over. He looked back at the others. "Who threw that?"

Gus, Juliet and Lassiter's eyes were all wide.

"No one did it…" said Juliet.

"What?" asked Shawn.

"It just flew up and hit you…" said Gus, staring at the stone dog. "By itself…"

"I think it's safe to say that I'm maybe starting to believe your whole psychic story," said Lassiter in shock.

Shawn glanced down at the dog and back up at Gus. "Really?"

Gus gave him a look. "Yeah…"

"But…that's…" began Shawn.

Shawn suddenly cried out in pain, grabbing at his chest and quickly falling to his knees. "Ah! Gus!"

"What is it, Shawn?" asked Gus, playing along. "Another vision?"

Shawn looking up at him, real fear in his eyes. "No, Gus, not a vision!"

Gus seemed to get that something was wrong. "Oh, my God…"

Shawn cried out again, falling onto his side.

"Shawn!" Gus cried, rushing over to kneel next to his friend. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know…" Shawn gritted out. "It feels like…I'm being stabbed."

Lassiter and Juliet kneeled down on Shawn's other side.

"Is that what happened to the author?" asked Juliet.

"I'm really sure that this has nothing to do with the author," said Shawn, clenching his jaw in pain. He grabbed hold of his collar and pulled it down, ripping the top few buttons on the shirt.

They all stared in shock at Shawn's chest. Just above his heart, a word was carved into his skin: "FAKE."

"Fake?" asked Juliet. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know," said Shawn, staring in alarm at the word.

Lassiter frowned at him. "Are these 'spirits' implying that you're a fake?"

Shawn looked up at him. "No. It's gotta be something else. I am definitely not a fake." He cried out in pain again as another stabbing pain exploded on the right side of his chest.

Shawn ripped the right side of his shirt down, and they watched in horror as another word was currently being carved into his skin. When it was over, they stared in confusion:

"LIAR."

"Well, someone says you're lying," said Lassiter, still staring in shock at the word.

Shawn looked up at Gus, sharing a freaked look with him.

"Spencer…" growled Lassiter.

Spencer rolled his eyes and looked up at the empty room. "Thanks a lot!" He looked over at the detectives and sighed. "They're right…I'm…not a psychic."

"What?" said Juliet. "But all those cases you've solved…"

"Just good old-fashioned detective work," muttered Shawn. He smiled. "Really good detective work."

"But how?" asked Juliet. "You know things that no one else does."

"I'm like a modern day Sherlock Holmes," said Shawn. "I pick up on details and patterns, putting things together to come up with a conclusion. I'm just good at observation."

"But how did you become such a good detective?" asked Juliet.

Shawn rolled his eyes. "Have you _met_ my father?"

"He trained you to be a detective?" asked Lassiter. "And you've been lying about it this whole time."

"Don't you even give me that look," Shawn told Lassiter. "I told you the truth the first time, but you wouldn't believe me. What was I supposed to do? Let you throw me in jail for telling the truth?"

"But…you sent me to the holding cell where that guy had taillight shards in his shoe," said Lassiter.

Shawn sighed. "I came into the station to pick up my commendation, and the secretary sent me to sit next to him on the bench. I saw the shards on his sleeve and pointed them out to him. He brushed them off right into his shoe, so I didn't say anything. Someone like that deserves to go to prison."

"That's what it's been this whole time?" said Lassiter angrily. "You notice things and then pretend to have visions."

Shawn shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I really am getting visions from the great beyond."

Something stabbed through Shawn's head, lighting up his brain with fire. He shouted as he grabbed his head, writhing on the floor in unbearable pain. It felt like something was rooting around in his skull, rifling through his brain.

"Shawn!" exclaimed Gus, grabbing hold of Shawn's shoulder. "Shawn!"

"Oh, my God…" said Juliet.

They watched as blood began streaming from Shawn's ears and nose.

"Shawn!" Gus shouted, trying to get through to him.

Shawn gave a loud yell as the pain spiked to an excruciating level. White light exploded in front of his eyes, and he blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Two

**Sorry for the delay. I was on vacation and then I was sick. So glad to get back to this story. These next two chapters have been just sitting in my head getting very very stagnant.**

Shawn moaned as he brought a hand up to his face. He fought to get his eyes open, trying to ignore the odd echo of pain in his head.

"Shawn?"

Shawn finally pried his eyes open, looking up and around the room. He seemed to be in a hospital room, the heart monitor at the side of his bed beeping steadily. He turned his head to see Gus and his father standing next to the bed.

"Gus?" asked Shawn. "Dad?"

"Hey, how are you?" asked Gus. "Does your head hurt?"

"No, not really," said Shawn. "It just...feels weird."

"Weird?" asked Henry.

"Yeah, it feels...different," Shawn told them.

"Different?" asked Henry. "What does different mean?"

"I don't know," said Shawn, irritated. "What happened?"

"What do you remember?" asked Gus.

"Um…" said Shawn, closing his eyes to think for a moment. "We were at that author's house…" he looked up at the two of them, "and then, um…" his eyes widened.

Shawn pulled the white t-shirt up and saw two pieces of gauze taped to his chest, one on each side. He peeled back the tape on the right side and saw a stitched word: LIAR.

"Agh…" moaned Shawn, putting the gauze back on his skin and letting his head fall back onto the pillow. "How did I get to the hospital?"

"You passed out just after you admitted to Lassiter and Juliet that you weren't psychic," said Gus.

"Ah, man!" Shawn exclaimed, closing his eyes in frustration. "I was hoping that was just a dream."

"Well, it wasn't a dream," said Gus. "Especially the part about blood pouring out of your nose and ears."

Shawn opened his eyes and looked up at Gus. "Really?"

"Yeah," said Gus.

"Well, what did the doctors say?" asked Shawn.

"They said you suffered some kind of concussion, or something," said Henry. "They ran you through the MRI machine, but they saw nothing to worry about."

"To worry about?" asked Shawn, sensing that the doctors had told them something.

"Well, they saw an abnormality," said Henry. "Just an active section of the brain that usually isn't active, but they said it was nothing to be concerned about, that it was probably normal after a concussion."

"Yeah, except this concussion was brought on by invisible spirits," muttered Gus.

"Shawn, did all of that really happen?" asked Henry. "Gus told me, but…"

Shawn looked at him. "Yeah, Dad, it really happened." He scooted further up in the bed to he could sit up. "Geez, I'm starving. Did I wake up in time for lunch?" He looked up to see that they were wearing hesitant faces. He glanced over at the sun coming in the window. "Well, the sun's out, so I know it's not dinner yet."

"Shawn, it's Wednesday," said Henry.

"What?" asked Shawn.

"You've been unconscious all night long," Henry told him.

"But you made it in time for breakfast," said Gus.

"Awesome," said Shawn, reaching for the bedrail to pull himself even further up. "Hope they have pineapple."

The second that Shawn's hand touched the bedrail, the room around him seemed to freeze and spin at the same time. The television was suddenly on, showing a movie: _Back to the Future II._

"_No!" exclaimed Marty McFly in the penthouse suite. "No, I'm not feeling alright!" He sat down next to his mother. "I don't understand one damn thing that's going on around here and why no one can give me a simple straight answer!"_

_Lorraine Tannen put a hand to his head. "Oh, they must have hit you over the head hard this time."_

_Marty grabbed his mother's hand. "Mom, I just want to know one thing: where's my father? Where's George McFly?"_

_Lorraine frowned. "Marty…George—your father—is in the exact same place he's been the past twelve years…Oak Park—"_

The movie was suddenly interrupted by a news bulletin logo. The screen switched to an anchorwoman.

"We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this breaking news," the anchorwoman said. "A twenty-car pile-up has occurred in the southbound lanes of Interstate 55 at 8:10 this morning just outside of Chesapeake County."

The anchorwoman was replaced by scenes of a horrible accident on a highway, police cars and fire trucks and ambulances beginning to appear at the scene.

"This accident is believed to be caused by a semi truck crash," said the anchorwoman. "The high winds caused the empty trailer to topple over, beginning the crash that involved at least twenty other vehicles. There is no definitive number at this time, but it is speculated that fourteen have been injured and five are dead."

Shawn inhaled sharply as he tore his hand away from the bedrail. He whipped his head over to look up at the television hanging from the ceiling. It was off.

"Shawn?" asked Gus.

He and Henry had seen Shawn grab onto the bed rail and then gasp, looking up at the television.

Shawn stared at the television a little more.

"Shawn," said Henry.

Shawn looked over at the two of them, frowning, before looking back at the television in confusion.

"What is it?" asked Gus.

"Uh…" said Shawn. He looked back at the two of them. "A, uh, daydream, or something."

"Or something?" asked Henry.

"Well, it was just so…oddly real," Shawn told them. "There was a movie on the TV, and then a news bulletin came on about some car accident." He shrugged. "Must be the pain killers."

"Shawn, you haven't been on any pain killers since midnight," Henry told him.

Shawn shrugged again. "Oh, well. Regular old daydream, then. Where's the remote? I'm bored."

Henry grabbed the remote off of a table and handed it to Shawn. Shawn pointed it at the television and turned it on. He flipped through several channels, looking for something to watch. He finally stopped on a channel showing a movie.

Shawn froze, staring at the screen as he pulled himself off of the head of the bed and sat up.

"Shawn?" asked Gus.

Shawn stared at the screen in confusion.

"_No!" exclaimed Marty McFly in the penthouse suite. "No, I'm not feeling alright!" He sat down next to his mother. "I don't understand one damn thing that's going on around here and why no one can give me a simple straight answer!"_

"Shawn?" asked Gus. "What is it?"

_Lorraine Tannen put a hand to his head. "Oh, they must have hit you over the head hard this time."_

_Marty grabbed his mother's hand. "Mom, I just want to know one thing: where's my father? Where's George McFly?"_

Shawn frowned. "Huh…It's, uh…this was the movie that was on when the bulletin came—" He froze as Lorraine was cut off at, _"Oak Park—"_

A news bulletin logo appeared on the screen as the screen switched to an anchorwoman.

Shawn's jaw dropped as Gus and Henry stared at the screen in shock.

"We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this breaking news," the anchorwoman said. "A twenty car pile-up has occurred—"

"I-55…" said Shawn softly.

"…of Interstate 55 at 8:10—" said the anchorwoman.

"Chesapeake…" said Shawn in a daze, staring at the screen.

"…outside of Chesapeake County," said the anchorwoman.

The anchorwoman was replaced by scenes of a horrible accident on a highway, police cars and fire trucks and ambulances beginning to appear at the scene.

"This accident is believed—" said the anchorwoman.

"High winds…" whispered Shawn.

"…crash," said the anchorwoman. "The high winds caused the empty trailer to topple over, beginning the crash that involved at least twenty other vehicles. There is no definitive—"

"Five dead, fourteen injured…" whispered Shawn, stunned.

"…speculated that fourteen have been injured and five are dead."

As the news report continued, Shawn slowly turned his head to look at his father and his best friend.

Shawn had seen that news report…before it happened…


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter three

Shawn looked back at the television. "But…but that accident only happened fifteen minutes ago…" He looked at Gus and Henry. "No one came in the past five minutes I've been awake, and I've been asleep since last night—" he looked back at the TV, "and no one could've found out about that to say anything to us before that news bulletin came on. How—how—"

"Alright, Shawn, calm down," said Gus.

"Calm down?" said Shawn, looking at Gus. "Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down? You have any idea what just happened?"

"You just had a vision," said Gus, nodding slowly.

"A vision?" said Shawn. "Yeah, right. I'm a fake psychic who just happens to have a real vision. Sure."

"Shawn—" said Henry.

"No, Dad," said Shawn. "I accept that whatever happened yesterday was caused by ghosts, but I refuse to believe that I just had a full-on vision."

"How else do you explain it?" said Gus. "Like you said, no one could have found out about that accident before it came on the television. And you did say you had a little daydream about it when you…" He looked down at the bed railing. "You had it when you touched the railing! It was triggered by you touching the railing! Do it again!"

"What?" said Shawn. "Come on, Gus."

"Shawn, just touch the railing," said Gus.

Shawn rolled his eyes and grabbed hold of the railing. He gasped as his hand flew to his head, his eyes closed. "Oh…I see…I see…"

"What do you see, Shawn?" asked Gus, getting excited.

"That you're wrong," said Shawn, opening his eyes and putting his hands in his lap. "I am not psychic, Gus."

Gus dug in his pockets, pulling a diamond ring out. "Here."

"No, thanks, man," said Shawn. "Doesn't really go with anything I have."

Gus glared at him. "It was my grandmother's ring. Touch it, see if you see anything."

Shawn rubbed a hand across his forehead. "Gus, it's—"

"Just take it, Shawn," said Henry.

Shawn frowned up at the two of them before rolling his eyes and sticking his hand out. Gus dropped the ring into Shawn's hand. Shawn's hand immediately clenched around the ring, and he gasped as a spark shot through his mind. Someone began to humming softly on the left side of the room.

Shawn frowned, slowly looking over towards that side of the room. A young African-American woman stood by the wall, folding laundry on a table. Her dress and hairstyle appeared to have stepped right out of the forties. She looked over at the corner under where the TV hung. Shawn glanced over to see a crib along the wall with a baby sleeping in it. The woman smiled and went back to folding laundry.

Shawn frowned again and looked back at Henry and Gus. "Tell me you guys can see that…"

Gus and Henry shook their heads, watching Shawn closely.

Shawn turned his head, looking back at the young woman. He pulled his blankets back and swung his legs over the side of the bed, standing as he let the ring drop onto the mattress. The woman and the baby crib vanished, and Shawn froze, frowning. He looked down at the ring and back at the blank wall. He lowered his hand over the ring and looked back at the wall. As he grasped onto the ring, the woman and the crib reappeared in the same places.

Shawn walked over to the woman, raising his hand and reaching out to touch the woman. His hand went right through her as she continued to fold laundry. He pulled his hand back, frowning down at it and then up at the woman. The woman finished the last piece of laundry and walked over to the crib, running a hand over her baby's fine hair. Shawn walked over to the crib, looking down into it and up at the woman.

A door slammed open, causing Shawn to jump as the woman did, too. Shawn spun around to see that a door had materialized in the wall by the heart monitor across from the crib. A rough-looking African-American man stood in the doorway, glaring at the woman.

"What are you doing?" asked the man.

"I'm folding the laundry," said the woman shakily, pointing at the piles of clothes.

"You were supposed to finish cutting the wood today," said the man. "There isn't enough for this week."

"I'm sorry," said the woman, heading for the door to try to get past him. "I'll go finish that now."

The man grabbed her arm suddenly and flung her against the wall. Shawn flinched as the woman cried out, awakening the baby.

"You think I'm just gonna let you walk out on us?" asked the man.

"No!" said the woman. "I was gonna cut the wood!"

"You were running away!" yelled the man, raising his fist and hitting the woman.

Shawn flinched again, clenching his fists.

"And now look at what you've done," said the man, pointing at the crib. "You woke William."

"Please, don't hurt him!" begged the woman.

The man glared at her. "I would never hurt my son." He walked out of the room.

Shawn headed towards the door, watching the guy leave. He turned back and looked down at the woman, who sobbed on the floor. His jaw hung open in horror as she cried. The man suddenly came back, walking right through Shawn. Shawn jumped, putting a hand to his chest and quickly stepping out of the way. The man held a belt in his hand.

"No!" the woman cried.

"You need to take better care of your son!" the man yelled. He struck the woman with the belt.

Shawn flinched.

"He doesn't deserve a mother like you!" the man yelled, striking again.

Shawn flinched once more.

"And I don't deserve a wife like you!" the man yelled, raising the belt again.

Shawn's jaw clenched in anger as he charged the man, dropping the ring in the process. He froze as the scene vanished. Shawn stood by the wall, turning around to try to find the man and woman. He breathed heavily as he looked down at the ring on the floor.

"Shawn?" asked Gus.

Shawn's jaw dropped as he slowly walked back to the hospital bed and sat down on it. "Oh, God…"

"Shawn?" asked Henry as the two of them circled around to stand in front of Shawn. "What is it?"

"Oh, my God…" muttered Shawn. "Your grandfather…He…He…Your grandmother…"

Gus sighed. "You saw it?"

Shawn looked up at him. "It really happened?"

Gus nodded sadly.

Shawn put his head in his hands, leaning over to take deep breaths. "Oh, God…"

Juliet and Lassiter walked into the room behind Shawn.

"Shawn, you're awake," said Juliet.

"Is he okay?" asked Lassiter.

Shawn shot up from the bed, turning towards them. "No, Lassie! I am most certainly not okay! I just had a freaking vision!"

"Nice try, Spencer," said Lassiter. "We already know you're fake."

"Oh, oh, I know I'm a fake," said Shawn tensely, pacing the room. "Trust me, I know I'm a fake. That's why I'm freaking out!"

"What is he going on about?" asked Juliet as Shawn turned away from them all and rubbed a hand over his forehead in frustration.

"He had a vision…a real vision," said Henry.

"How do you know?" asked Lassiter. "Maybe he's faking again."

"He had a vision of a news bulleting about that crash on 55," said Henry. "Five minutes before we turned on the TV and saw it. Then he just had a vision about Gus' grandmother that Gus confirmed."

"How do you know he's now faking it, though?" asked Lassiter. "I mean, how are we supposed to know that he's a real psychic now?"

Shawn sighed and turned, walking over to Lassiter. "Got anything on ya?"

Lassiter frowned at him. "What?"

"You got anything on ya?" repeated Shawn. "Anything personal? Something with memories attached to it that I couldn't possibly know?"

"Shawn, are you sure you want to—" began Gus.

Shawn turned and looked at Gus. "How else is he gonna believe us?" He turned back to Lassiter. "Well?"

Lassiter stared at him for a moment before reaching into a breast pocket inside his suit jacket and pulling out a small necklace with a gold pendant engraved with an "E." He held it up as it hung from his hand. Shawn took a deep breath and reached out for the pendant, hesitating as his hand curled around it. He stared at it for another moment before closing his hand around it.

Shawn's head twitched to the side as his grip tightened on the necklace. He pulled the necklace close, staring down at it. His entire demeanor had changed. His face had transformed into a mask…a mask that Juliet saw every day at work. Shawn looked up from the necklace and stared down at the floor, like he was staring at something. Everyone in the room watched him closely.

Shawn frowned in anguish and opened his mouth to speak. But the voice that came from his mouth was different…Juliet could have sworn it was Lassiter's voice coming from Shawn.

"I know I haven't been around a lot…" said Shawn sadly in a voice that sounded like Lassiter's.

Juliet stared at him. It was almost as though Shawn were reliving something…something only he could see. She glanced over at Lassiter. He was frowning deeply at Shawn, confused.

"But…" continued Shawn. He winced, holding the necklace close to him in both hands. He took a deep breath. "You know your mom and I love you, right?"

Juliet frowned, looking over at Lassiter, whose eyes had gone wide in shock.

Shawn frowned as tears threatened to spill from his eyes. He took a deep breath as he looked away from whatever he was staring at on the ground. He closed his eyes and slowly looked back down at that thing. He glanced down at the necklace and lowered himself onto one knee, looking at something in front of him.

"How did I let this happen?" Shawn whispered, shaking his head. His expression took on an angered, desperate look. "I'm a cop! The head detective! I should've—"

Lassiter's expression had turned downright scared.

Shawn's chin trembled as he closed his eyes. He slowly opened them again, holding the necklace up so the pendant hung from his hand. "I should've protected you, Ellie."

Lassiter's face turned pale as his jaw clenched.

"I am so sorry—" began Shawn.

Lassiter charged forward, yanking the necklace out of Shawn's hand and stared at him in alarm.

The second the pendant was out of his hand, Shawn seemed to come out of his trance. He blinked and looked up at Lassiter, staring at him in heartache.

"Lassiter…" said Shawn sadly in his own voice this time.

Lassiter turned tail and stalked out of the hospital room without a word to anyone, looking like he was gonna be sick.

Shawn looked from Lassiter's retreating form to Juliet, and he frowned suddenly. He looked around and then down at himself kneeling on the floor. "What…am I doing on the floor?"

"Well, you kind of had an…episode," said Juliet.

"Episode?" asked Shawn.

"It was like you were…living the vision," said Juliet. "You were acting it out and everything. You…" she chuckled a little to herself.

"What?" asked Shawn.

"I could have sworn your voice sounded exactly like Lassiter's," said Juliet.

"Really?" asked Shawn, looking back at the spot he had been staring at during the vision. He raised a hand and ran it over the air in front of him.

"Whatever you saw, you really freaked him out," said Gus.

"What **did** you see?" asked Juliet.

Shawn pulled himself to his feet, wincing as his hand went to his stitched chest. He sat on the bed. "I, uh…I was at a cemetery, holding that pendant in my hand. I was standing in front of a tombstone…It said 'Elizabeth Lassiter.'" He paused, looking up at them. "It was Lassiter's daughter. She was killed in a drunk driving accident when she was one year old. That's why he and his wife separated."

"That kind of explains it," said Gus. "He's always so dedicated to his job, so detached."

Juliet stared at Shawn. "You really are psychic now?"

Shawn stared down at the hand that had held the pendant. "Looks like."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Four

**Sorry for the absence. Vacation and then sick and then mom's surgery and then my laptop crashed and then a tornado hit, so I couldn't use the library's computers...I need a new life...**

**But i'm getting a night shift job, so i'll be able to write a lot more now.**

**P.S. Can you guess where I got the psychic style idea from?**

Shawn stared at the television, trying to focus on the movie rather than what was happening to him. Gus and Henry had been trying to talk to him about it several times that morning, but Shawn had pointedly ignored them, turning up the volume on the TV. They had given up the third time he did that. Shawn just couldn't deal with this whole psychic thing right now. It was one thing to act like you're psychic. It was another thing entirely to actually have images flashing through your head.

Shortly after Shawn's lunch tray arrived, a knock came on his door, and Juliet walked into the room.

"Hey, Jules!" greeted Shawn, grateful for a new visitor.

"Hey," said Juliet. "How are you?"

"Wishing I could go home," grumbled Shawn.

"Not until this afternoon, Shawn," Henry told him.

Shawn rolled his eyes. "You people really know how to poop on the party. If you're gonna hold me hostage, at least get me, like, a Nintendo or something."

Juliet smiled a little as she turned fully towards Shawn. "I stopped by the station on my way here."

Shawn looked up at her.

"The chief said that Lassiter **did** have a daughter killed by a drunk driver," said Juliet. "Your vision was right."

Shawn shrugged. "Well, that's a relief. I thought I was going schizo."

Juliet laughed a little as another knock came at the door.

Shawn's doctor walked in. "How are we doing today, Shawn?"

"Like AC/DC at a Hannah Montana concert," Shawn grumbled.

Everyone chuckled a little.

"Shawn doesn't do very well with sitting still," Henry told the doctor.

"Well, you'll be getting out of here by two o'clock if your tests check out," said the doctor.

"What tests?" asked Shawn.

"The ones I need to do right now," said the doctor, pulling out a penlight. "Alright, look straight ahead."

Shawn settled back against the bed, turning his head to look at the wall ahead of him. The doctor turned the penlight on and shone it in Shawn's eyes, checking the pupil response.

"Okay," said the doctor, turning the light off and putting it in the chest pocket of his white coat. He held a finger up in front of Shawn's nose. "Follow my finger with your eyes."

Shawn held his head still and allowed his eyes to stay on the doctor's finger as it moved back and forth in front of him.

"Good," said the doctor. "Alright, now, can you tell me your name and date of birth?" He reached for Shawn's right hand to check his response with the medical bracelet.

"Shawn Spen-" Shawn began just as the doctor touched his hand to check the bracelet.

Juliet, Gus and Henry watched as every muscle in Shawn's body tensed and his eyes widened. The next second, Shawn's body jolted on the bed, his left hand flying up to clutch at his throat. Shawn gasped harshly as he gagged and choked. The doctor let go of Shawn's hand in shock, and Shawn bolted up from the bed, leaning forward and gasping in oxygen by the lungful. He coughed several times, clutching at the blankets with one hand as his other still clutched at his throat.

Shawn's eyes flew open, and his head shot up to look at the doctor with wide, terrified eyes. "Call your neighbor. Tell them to get over to your house. Your wife slipped and hit her head. She fell in the bathtub. She's drowning."

The doctor frowned. "What? What are you talking-"

"I will pay for the broken door!" pleaded Shawn. "Call them! Please!"

They had never seen Shawn looking that desperate before. He looked about ready to bolt to the doctor's house himself if the guy didn't call his neighbor.

The doctor watched Shawn warily as he pulled out his cell phone, dialing a number and putting it to his ear. He waited for a moment.

"Hey, Paul, it's Tim," said the doctor. "Can you get over to my house and check on my wife?" He listened for a moment. "No, just break the door down." He listened for another moment. "I'm dead serious, Paul. Please." He listened again. "Yeah, I'll wait."

They waited for about five minutes or so, Shawn getting more and more tense by the second. His right hand was still fisted in the blankets, his knuckles white. His left hand hovered over his chest, grasping the t-shirt he was wearing.

"Yeah, I'm here," the doctor finally said. His eyes widened as he looked over at Shawn, his face going pale. "Is she okay?" He listened for a moment and seemed to relax a little. "Thank you so much. Can you stay with her until I get home?...Okay, I'm on my way."

Shawn relaxed, his hands loosening their hold. He let out a deep, tension-filled breath.

The doctor looked at him. "How did you do that?"

Shawn looked up at him, a little stunned from it all.

Juliet stepped forward. "Mr. Spencer is the head psychic for the SBPD."

The doctor nodded. "Well, thank you, Shawn. I'm gonna get another doctor to release you. And again, thank you."

Shawn nodded at him, and the doctor left.

"Well, looks like it's not just you touching things that triggers it," said Henry.

"Yeah..." breathed Shawn. He sighed. "Do me a favor, guys? Nobody touch me."

************************************Psych******************************************************************************

Shawn was released at two with a clean bill of health. Each time a nurse lent a helping hand or someone would bump into him, Shawn stiffened, slamming his eyes closed. He would mostly ignore these visions, except for a few every once in a while when he would mutter to the person "It's in the back pocket of your purse" or "Your mom forgives you for the winter of 1987."

By the time he got back to the Psych office with Gus, his brain was fried. He plopped down in the chair behind his desk, putting his hand to his head in exhaustion.

"You okay?" asked Gus.

Shawn sighed, lowering his hand and looking at Gus. "I don't know, man. I feel like I've made a peephole in everyone's bathroom walls and then someone taped my head to it. And all I want to do is close my eyes, but someone taped them open."

Gus winced. "That bad?" He headed over to his desk and sat down.

"You have no idea," muttered Shawn.

"Famke Jensen from _X-Men_?" asked Gus.

"No, this is more like Anthony Michael Hall from _The Dead Zone_," Shawn told him. "It's like a TV playing constantly in my head, and someone keeps flicking the power button. It's like a bad movie that you want to turn off, but you can't look away. It's like-"

"I get it, Shawn," Gus told him, turning on his laptop.

Shawn sighed. "I just want it to stop."

He reached for a sports magazine on his desk. The second his hand touched the slick cover, the room spun in front of him, quickly changing into a highway at night. Shawn stood on the side of the road, watching as an SUV hit a branch and flipped onto its roof. The driver flew out of the vehicle, landing several yards away from the wreck.

Shawn yelped as his hand shot back towards his chest.

Gus looked up at him suddenly. "What is it?"

Shawn looked down at the cover of the magazine, which held an old photo of the football star Rick Lanceton. It featured a story on how he was coping with his paralysis after his car accident.

Shawn looked up at his friend. "Vision...terrible one..."

"What was it?" asked Gus.

"Who cares?" grumbled Shawn as he stood and headed for their fridge. "It was the past. Not important." He grabbed the handle on the fridge door to open it. He paused and grimaced. "Dude, really? You put the milk back after drinking from the carton? That's a move I'd expect from me."

Gus paled and quickly looked back down at his computer. "You hadn't cleaned the dishes."

"Why didn't you just do it?" asked Shawn as he opened the door and pulled a soda out.

"It was your turn, Shawn," Gus told him.

Shawn frowned. "We take turns?"

Gus rolled his eyes. "Apparently not."

Shawn headed over towards his desk, grabbing the remote for the TV on the way. He instantly dropped it on the floor, grabbing his head. "Oh, come on! I can't even watch TV?"

Gus glanced up at him. "You're not even gonna try turning it on?"

Shawn glared at the remote on the floor like it had the plague. "No." He walked over to his desk and sat down, pulling the tab on the soda can and opening it. His eyes widened, and he grimaced. "Oh, God, no..." He slowly glanced down into the soda and then quickly looked away. "Uh, gross."

Gus looked up in interest. "What?"

"Guy in the soda factory had an on-the-job accident," Shawn told him. "They never found his thumb." He raised the can up. "Until now."

"Really?" asked Gus, standing and heading over to look. He frowned in disgust. "Oh, that is nasty. You know, you can get a settlement from the soda company for that."

"Great," Shawn muttered, handing him the can. "Knock yourself out."

Gus took the can and headed over to his laptop to look up the company's phone number.

Shawn grabbed onto his desk to pull his chair closer, and he immediately let go of it. "Alright, that is it!" He jumped up from his chair, holding his arms close to his chest as he headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Gus.

"Somewhere with less memories," Shawn growled. "Preferably where I don't have to touch stuff."

"Shawn-" began Gus, but his friend was already out the front door.

Shawn headed down the sidewalk in the direction of his apartment, trying to avoid bumping into anyone. Something clipped his shoulder from behind, and white flashed through his mind.

_"Honey, can we not talk about this right now?" asked a middle-aged guy._

_"Fine, you can just sleep on the couch," a woman told him, storming out of the room._

_The man sadly watched her leave._

Shawn flinched away from the depressed-looking guy, watching him walk past him. An ice cream vendor pushed his cart down the street towards him, and he jumped back out of the way, his back hitting a light pole.

_"Give me your wallet!" a gunman yelled at him._

_"Please don't hurt me!" he begged, pulling out his wallet as the guy pinned him to a light pole. "Here, here!"_

_The gunman grabbed the wallet and hit the guy across the face with his gun, knocking him out._

Shawn gasped, wrenching himself away from the light pole. He began running down the street, desperate to get to his apartment and trying to ignore the visions he got along the way.

_That's it,_ Shawn thought._ I am **never** leaving my apartment!_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Five

Gus climbed out of his Echo in front of the station, talking on the phone. "Any luck, Mr. Spencer?"

"None," said Henry on the other end. "I tried talking to him for I don't know how many minutes. He won't budge. We just need to give the kid some time."

"Alright, but check in on him every once in a while," Gus told him. "Make sure he doesn't go insane."

"You do the same," Henry told him.

"Definitely," Gus affirmed as he hung up.

Gus walked into the station, heading for Juliet's desk.

Juliet looked up and smiled at him. "Gus, hey." She frowned, looking past him for someone. "Where's Shawn?"

Gus frowned sadly. "Lockdown."

Juliet frowned. "Lockdown?"

"He shut himself up in his apartment about two hours ago," Gus told her. "He won't come out. The visions are too much for him. You don't have any cases you need him for, do you?"

Juliet shook her head. "No. We're fine. Just a stolen car downtown. Tell him not to worry. Just, uh…tell him to get better soon."

Gus nodded. "Of course."

They glanced over as Lassiter walked past, flipping through a file. He glanced up at them for a moment before pointedly avoiding their gazes and quickly heading for his desk.

"He still not talking to you?" asked Gus, still watching Lassiter.

"Not really," said Juliet, looking at Gus. "He'll share case information with me when necessary, but he's still kind of ignoring me."

Gus shrugged with a frown, turning his head towards Juliet. "He'll come around…sooner or later. So will Shawn. I'll make sure of it."

Juliet nodded. "Keep us updated, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Gus assured her before turning and heading out of the station and towards Shawn's apartment.

****************************************Psych****************************************************************

Shawn sat on the couch in his apartment, not having left for three days now. Sure, Gus and his father had stopped by several times now, trying to persuade him to go outside. Shawn wouldn't listen to them. They had no idea what this new life was like. They weren't the ones who had to be careful of whatever they touched, scared of everything and everyone around them, forced to watch these bits and pieces of other people's lives inside his head.

So, Shawn had taken refuge in the safety of his apartment. Although he still got visions whenever he touched stuff, at least it was **his** life he was seeing and not someone else's.

Unfortunately, Shawn was now out of food, but he wasn't about to head to the grocery store. There were so many people to bump into there. Not to mention the number of people who have touched the product you're about to grab. No, better to get one vision off the delivery guy than thirty off the shoppers. So, Shawn had ordered pizza.

A knock came at his door, and Shawn headed for it, looking through the peephole. The delivery guy stood in the hallway with one of those insulated pizza bags.

"Hey," said Shawn through the door. "Pineapple pizza?"

"Yeah," said the guy.

"Okay," said Shawn. "Put it on the floor."

The guy frowned, blinking in confusion. "What?"

"Just put it on the floor," said Shawn. "Here." He knelt down and slipped twenty bucks under the door. He straightened back up and looked through the peephole.

The guy stared down at the twenty dollar bill and then looked up at the door before opening his bag and pulling the pizza box out. He placed it on the floor in the hall before picking up the money, starting to dig in his pocket.

"Keep the change," Shawn told him.

The delivery guy shrugged and pocketed the twenty, heading down the hall. Shawn waited a moment before taking a deep breath and opening the door. He knelt and grabbed the pizza box, wincing as he saw the delivery guy had almost had an accident during the drive there. Shawn straightened up to see the delivery guy standing at the door to the stairs, watching him warily.

Shawn cleared his throat. "I'm taking this medicine right now, you know, that lowers immune…whatever. I just really don't wanna chance getting sick."

The delivery guy nodded and seemed to accept that answer as he headed through the door. Shawn watched him go for a moment before heading back into his apartment.

As Shawn dug into the pizza, he wondered just how long he could last before the visions and isolation drove him over the edge.

*********************************************Psych****************************************************************

Gus knocked on the door to Shawn's apartment, but got no answer. He tried the doorknob and was shocked to find it unlocked. No matter how carefree Shawn always appeared, he always locked and bolted his door, even when he was home and awake. Shawn knew he had pissed more than a few criminals off by helping the police. He knew it was too dangerous to leave himself vulnerable like that.

Gus headed inside, closing the door. "Shawn?"

There was no response.

Gus made his way through the mess, the obvious remnant of the five days Shawn had been holed up in there. There were pizza boxes and Chinese take-out containers, worn clothes thrown haphazardly in random places, magazines and DVDs scattered everywhere.

Gus headed for the bedroom, knocking on and slowly opening the door.

"Shawn?" Gus called, spotting him lying in his bed with his back to the door. "You awake?" He watched as Shawn sighed, not turning over or even looking at him.

Gus walked around the bed to find Shawn staring at the wall in front of him.

Gus smiled at him. "Hey, buddy. How's it going?"

Shawn did manage to spare a weary glare at him.

"Okay, stupid question," Gus said. He raised his hands to show he wasn't gonna touch Shawn as he sat on the edge of the bed.

Shawn went back to staring at the wall after he saw that Gus wasn't gonna bump into him.

"Shawn…um…" began Gus, not sure how to begin. His face brightened suddenly. "I got you something."

As he dug in his jacket pocket for what he'd bought on the way there, he noticed Shawn's gaze track back over to him. Gus pulled out a pair of fashionable leather gloves, and Shawn frowned at them.

"I know they won't stop all the visions," Gus explained as he held the gloves up, "but…at least you won't have to worry about when you touch stuff."

Shawn just looked from the gloves to Gus and back at the gloves.

Gus sighed, lowering his hand until the gloves were lying on the bed in his hand. "Shawn…you can't stay locked up in here. It's not good for you. Please, Shawn, please try…for me. I miss you, buddy…We all miss you."

Shawn still stared at him guardedly.

"If it gets to be too much, you can come back here," Gus promised. "I swear."

Shawn went back to staring at the wall, and Gus looked down at the floor, discouraged. After a moment, Gus felt the gloves being tugged from his grasp. He glanced over to see Shawn holding them, looking up at Gus.

"Thanks, man," Shawn muttered before pulling himself up to a sitting position.

"No problem," Gus told him, standing and heading for the door.

As Gus waited for Shawn to get dressed, he called Juliet to tell her he was bringing Shawn in to visit and for her to warn everyone not to touch him. A few minutes later, Shawn walked out of his room, dressed and wearing the leather gloves.

"You know, these don't look half bad," Shawn commented, flexing his hands in the gloves.

"Nope," said Gus. "Come on, I'll buy lunch."

Shawn smirked. "If I'd known I was gonna get free food and gifts out of it, I would've had a nervous breakdown weeks ago."

Gus rolled his eyes with a weary smile. "Come on." He led the way to the apartment door.

After getting a few tacos from the vendor on the pier, Gus and Shawn pulled up to the station in what Shawn had so fondly begun calling "The Blueberry." He'd gotten the idea when Nigel St. Nigel had taken a ride and had felt like "I've been incarcerated in a blueberry."

Shawn climbed out of the car as Gus put the parking brake on. He stared up at the somewhat imposing building, shuffling back and forth on his feet for a moment.

Gus walked up next to him. "You okay?"

Shawn looked over at him, plastering on a smile. "Oh, yeah. Come on, they're waiting for me." He took off towards the front steps.

Gus shook his head fondly, glad that Shawn's charismatic, devil-may-care attitude was back. He followed his best friend up the stairs. Shawn walked through the doors as Gus followed, glancing around nervously. He seemed to be on the watch for anyone who might bump into him. Several officers glanced up and smiled at Shawn, going back to their paper work.

Shawn headed for Juliet's desk, giving her a radiant smile.

"Shawn!" Juliet exclaimed with a smile. "I'm so happy to see you! How are you?"

"Oh, you know me," Shawn told her. "Can't keep me away for too long."

Juliet smiled at him. "Well, I'm glad you're up and around."

Lassiter walked over to Juliet's desk. "O'Hara, I need you to fax…" He trailed off as he looked up and saw Shawn standing at her desk.

Shawn looked at him awkwardly for a moment before glancing down at the floor.

Lassiter just stared at him for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Spencer."

Shawn looked up at him with apprehension.

"Don't waste O'Hara's time," Lassiter growled. "This is real detective work." He set some papers on Juliet's desk. "Fax these to the mayor's office ASAP."

"Sure," said Juliet.

Lassiter stalked off towards his own desk as Shawn watched him go. He looked back at the others with a small grin, grateful that Lassiter seemed to accept him again…Well, as much as he used to.

"So, looks like you've got your hands full," Shawn commented, glancing down at the pile of papers on Juliet's desk.

"Yeah," said Juliet. "We've narrowed down the time of the robbery, but it's just confusing. Something about it doesn't add up. Lassiter and I are trying to work it out, but…" She pulled an evidence bag out from under some papers.

The bag held what appeared to be a lock pick set. Shawn stared at it, thinking things through.

"The thief must have been wearing gloves," Juliet told them. "There were no fingerprints."

Shawn hesitated, unsure what to do. He surely didn't want any more visions, but…Isn't that why he had these visions? He'd been faking the psychic thing to help the police and the crime victims. Shouldn't he use the real thing just the same?

"Let me try," he blurted suddenly.

Gus and Juliet both looked at him.

"You sure?" asked Gus softly.

Shawn looked down at the bag and nodded. "Yeah." He began pulling the gloves off of his hands.

Juliet opened the evidence bag and pulled on a latex glove, reaching inside to pull the lock pick out. Shawn discarded his gloves on the desk and held his hand out. Juliet held the lock pick out and then dropped it into his hands.

Shawn immediately clenched his eyes shut as his eyes closed tightly. Gus and Juliet watched him closely, waiting for any clue as to what he was seeing. A moment later, Shawn's eyes flew open wide.

"What is it?" asked Juliet. "Did you see something?"

Shawn nodded, staring down at the desk with wide eyes.

"What was it?" asked Gus.

Shawn frowned. "I'm not really sure."

"Well, what does it mean?" asked Juliet.

Shawn looked up at the both of them. "It means we need to get back to that author's apartment."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Six

Shawn walked into the author's apartment, once again wearing his gloves. Juliet, Lassiter and Gus followed him in. Shawn took a look around the place, trying to figure out why he was there. He looked over towards the fireplace.

"What are we doing here, Spencer?" asked Lassiter. "I thought you said this guy staged his disappearance."

Ignoring her partner, Juliet focused on Shawn. "What did you see at the station?"

Shawn stared down at the still overturned stone beagle, spotting a small bloodstain near it…**his** blood. This was where it had started. This was where the spirits had messed with his brain and given him psychic abilities.

"Shawn…" said Juliet softly.

Shawn shook himself, looking back at them. "Yeah, uh…just the author's face."

"Parker Hill's?" asked Lassiter.

Shawn nodded, looking down at the beagle and blood once again. He turned towards the rest of the apartment, thinking about where he should start. He pulled the gloves off and moved towards the door of the apartment, the others watching him closely. Putting the gloves in his pocket, he raised his hands, and they hovered over the doorframe. He frowned as he moved his hands down the frame, never touching it.

Shawn then moved his hands to the actual door, moving down the edge of it. As his hands reached the doorknob, he felt a slight twinge in the back of his mind. He frowned deeper, wondering what that meant. He moved his hand forward, grasping the doorknob.

"_Can I help you?"_

Shawn looked up to find Parker Hill in his doorway, speaking to a young woman who had knocked on his door.

_The young woman smiled excitedly. "I'm Kara. You're—I'm—I'm your biggest fan."_

_Parker smiled and nodded, as though he had run across this a million times before. "Yes, um…Would you like an autograph?"_

_Kara smiled widely. "Oh, my God! That would be amazing!"_

_Parker nodded again and walked off into his apartment._

Shawn turned, not finding any of this relevant to the carjacking or the author's desire to run away from the pressure of fame. He looked closely at the room that hadn't been touched since he was last in there. He walked over to the desk by the window that had once held the guy's computer and printer. He placed his hand over the empty dust spot where the computer had sat and touched the wood. Nothing happened.

He lifted his hand and moved it over the surface of the desk, not sure what to touch. He then moved his hand down and felt that spark in his mind once again. His hand was hovering next to the handle of the top drawer in the desk. Shawn reached forward and touched the small metal handle.

_Parker Hill moved over to his desk, opening the top drawer. "I think I have a pen in here somewhere."_

Shawn stepped to the side so he could see everything happening in the apartment, his hand still lingering on the drawer handle.

_Kara's smile faded slowly as she stepped over the threshold into the apartment._

Shawn frowned, looking closely at her.

"_Do, uh, you have a book for me to sign, or should I get something?" asked Parker, digging through the contents of the drawer._

_Kara drew closer to the author, stepping up behind him and grabbing the fire poker quietly from the fireplace._

"_Miss?" asked Parker as he finally found a pen, closing the drawer and turning towards the door._

_Kara took that moment to raise the poker and swing it at Parker's head._

Shawn flinched as he let go of the handle in surprise. The scene of the young woman attacking the author was quickly replaced by two detectives and his best friend watching him closely, not having moved since they walked in.

"What is it?" asked Gus. "What did you see?"

Shawn glanced over at the fireplace to see the fire poker standing in its holder. "Not sure…"

He walked over to the fireplace and let his hand hover over the handle, feeling that familiar tingle in his mind.

_So, apparently, I can tell what is going to give me a vision and what won't…_ Shawn realized.

He lowered his hand, grasping the fire poker handle.

_Shawn swung the poker at Parker's head, forcing a yell from the middle-aged man as he fell to the floor._

"_Wha…" said Parker, disoriented from the blow to the head. He looked up at Shawn, fear filling his eyes. "No…Please, no…"_

_Parker tried to drag himself away from Shawn, but Shawn lifted the poker into the air again, bringing it down on Parker's head again and knocking him unconscious. Shawn dropped the poker and proceeded to head down the hall towards the guy's bedroom._

Shawn quickly let go of the fire poker, startled. _I hate the ones where I see through people's eyes…_

Shawn looked over at the floor next to the desk, where Parker had lain as Kara attacked him. He looked around the apartment at all the dust spots he had noticed earlier and the missing mementos.

"But it doesn't make sense…" Shawn mumbled out loud. "I was so sure…How could I have been wrong?"

"What doesn't make sense?" asked Juliet. "Wrong about what?"

Shawn ignored her and moved rapidly towards the bedroom, staring at the empty closet. The others hadn't followed him, probably giving him space to work. Shawn moved towards the closet, laying a hand on the door handle.

_Shawn flung the doors of the closet open, grabbing a suitcase from the shelf above the hangar rack. He began stuffing all the clothes hung up in the bag before closing the doors and heading back in the direction of the living room._

Shawn frowned as he pulled his hand off of the doorknob, heading hurriedly back into the living room. The others watched as his gaze swept the area, looking for whatever might give the best vision. He settled on the shelves with missing picture frames, putting his hand on the edge of it.

_Kara grabbed several photos that looked important and stuffed them in the bag on top of the clothes. She grabbed another bag she'd taken from the bedroom and began unplugging the laptop, stuffing it in the bag along with the printer and cords and speakers._

_She then took the bags outside, returning several minutes later to wipe off the fire poker and place it back in its holder. She grabbed Parker and dragged him out the door, returning after a while to start overturning furniture with great care so as not to scratch or break anything. When she was satisfied, she fled the apartment, closing the door behind her._

Shawn let go of the bookshelf, staring at the apartment in amazement. "I don't believe it…"

"What?" asked Gus.

A smile began to appear on Shawn's face. "She staged it…"

"Who staged what?" asked Lassiter, his arms crossed in annoyance.

Shawn looked over at them. "The girl—the fan that stopped by his apartment—she staged the whole thing! This isn't _Leaving Las Vegas_! This is _Misery_!"

"What are you talking about, Shawn?" asked Juliet.

"A fan stopped by his apartment, wanting an autograph," Shawn explained. "Then when his back was turned, she knocked him unconscious and packed everything up. _But_ she made it look like he had packed up and left, _but_ making it look like he had made it look like a kidnapping!"

They stared at him, confused.

"Don't you see?" said Shawn, his smile growing. "She knew that we would be looking at all the evidence! So, she made it look as though Parker just got sick of the writing life and set up his apartment to look like a kidnapping. We would get drawn to the scene because we thought it was a kidnapping. But, when we looked closer and saw the missing photos and clothes and computer and how nothing was broken or scratched, we would realize that Parker had staged this to escape, and we would just leave it alone! And she gets to go on kidnapping him, and nobody looks for her!" He shook his head in amazement. "This girl is a genius…"

"Well, as much as we all know that your psychic abilities are legit now, the Santa Barbara Police Department has to go on more than just a vision," Lassiter told Shawn. "We need proof."

Shawn frowned, looking around at the apartment for something that would prove what had gone down there. He then walked over to the fireplace, turning so that he faced the room and could see whatever would be happening when he had the vision. He laid his hand on the mantle of the fireplace.

"_The spirits say that…that there was no kidnapper," said Shawn. "They say that he…he staged this whole thing."_

"_And why would he do that?" asked Lassiter._

"_Hey, how should I know?" said Shawn, lowering his hands. "The spirits only give me a little at a time."_

_Something collided hard into Shawn's back._

"_Ow!" Shawn exclaimed, turning around and seeing a small stone beagle toppled over._

White flashed through Shawn's head.

_Shawn cried out again, falling onto his side._

"_Shawn!" Gus cried, rushing over to kneel next to his friend. "What's wrong?"_

"_I don't know…" Shawn gritted out. "It feels like…I'm being stabbed."_

White flashed again.

_Shawn cried out in pain again as another stabbing pain exploded on the right side of his chest._

_Shawn ripped the right side of his shirt down, and they watched in horror as another word was currently being carved into his skin._

"Ah!" Shawn shouted a little as he let go of the mantle, gripping his chest in one hand and his back in the other.

"What?" asked Gus. "What'd you see?"

"Nothing," said Shawn, wincing as though he could feel the pain of that day once again. "Just, uh…" he gestured down at the stone beagle and the drops of his blood, "replay of that day." He glanced up at the ceiling. "Thanks for the heads-up, but I kind of already knew that!"

Shawn rolled his eyes and stepped back over towards the fireplace mantle. Turning towards the room again, he braced himself for another rerun before touching the mantle. In an instant, every single piece of furniture in the room flew up to hit the ceiling and stay there. Shawn's jaw dropped as he stared up at the levitating furniture.

"What is it?" asked Juliet.

Shawn slowly glanced over at them and their non-reaction to what had just happened. "Uh…nothing. Just the, uh…" he looked back up at everything on the ceiling, "all the furniture is floating on the ceiling…"

The other three just stared at him.

"What?" said Lassiter after a moment.

Shawn took his eyes away from the ceiling and looked down at the floor, his gaze immediately drawn to a small puddle of blood on the hardwood. "Huh…" He let go of the mantle, jumping a little when everything appeared back in its proper place.

The place where the blood had been was now covered by an overturned recliner. It lay next to the desk…exactly where Parker had been hit in the head by the fire poker. Shawn walked over to the recliner, pushing it across the floor towards the wall and revealing the puddle of blood curdling on the hardwood floor.

Shawn looked up at Lassiter, pointing his thumb back towards the blood. "There's your proof."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Seven

**Sorry for my absence. April is Titanic month, and that's pretty much my whole world right there, so...**

**You'll be happy to see the return of snarky Shawn (I missed him so...).**

Shawn began heading up the stairs to the police station, once again wearing the leather gloves.

"Shawn!"

Shawn turned and saw his father walking towards him. "Dad."

"Gus finally got you out of the apartment, huh?" said Henry, his arms crossed in front of him.

"Yeah, we were gonna stop by after the station, but then I had a vision," Shawn explained. "We went to the crime scene to see if I could get anything else—"

"Wait, you're helping the department now?" asked Henry. "I thought you hated your visions."

Shawn shrugged. "Well…it's my life now. Not like you can hide from life, right? And if my visions help people, I guess I can live with 'em."

Henry smiled proudly at his son.

Shawn rolled his eyes. "Can we quit the telenovela now? I got work to do." He turned and headed up the stairs.

Henry shook his head in amusement as he followed his son.

The two of them headed into the station and over to the glass-enclosed conference room, where Juliet, Lassiter and Gus were already assembled.

"Alright, Scooby gang!" Shawn smiled as he approached them, clasping his hands in front of him in excitement. "Let's solve this mystery!"

"Scooby gang?" Gus questioned.

"Well, yeah," said Shawn. "I'd be Fred, Jules would be Daphne, Lassiter would be Shaggy, and you would be Velma."

Gus' brows rose in skepticism. "Velma?"

"Well, the only other one is Scooby, and I don't think you'd want to be a scaredy dog," Shawn told him.

"It's better than being a girl," Gus defended himself.

"But if you're Scooby, you're best friend is Lassiter," Shawn explained. "Velma hangs out with Fred a lot more than Scooby does."

Lassiter and Henry rolled their eyes, but Juliet and Gus smiled at each other, exchanging content looks at how Shawn was now back to being himself.

"Moving on," Lassiter ordered loudly, spreading reports and pictures out on the desk. "Forensics have analyzed the blood and discovered that it is, indeed, from Parker Hill. This has now become a hostage—possibly murder—situation. From Spencer's description of the assailant, we matched it with a local address. Officers searched the property and did not find our suspect.

"Hill was last seen a week and a half ago entering his apartment building. Based on Spencer's visions, it looks as though the suspect pretended to be a fan to gain entry into the premises. Once inside, the suspect attacked and kidnapped the victim. I presume the suspect fled the scene in a vehicle large enough to hide the victim in."

Shawn frowned suddenly, thinking back.

"_We've narrowed down the time of the robbery, but it's just confusing," said Juliet at her desk. "Something about it doesn't add up."_

Shawn looked up at everyone else. "What kind of car was stolen downtown this week?"

Lassiter frowned. "A green '77 Dodge Sportsman."

Shawn's face brightened. "That's gotta be it. It doesn't make sense that I would have a vision about Hill's disappearance from touching the lock pick set from the robbery, **unless** the two were connected."

"That explains why that car was stolen," Lassiter mused. "No one would want a van like that unless they were trying to be inconspicuous."

Shawn nodded. "Get me to where the van was stolen, I guarantee you I can get us closer to Hill's kidnapper."

Lassiter nodded. "We'll meet you there." He gathered the reports and photos into his file folder.

"To the Mystery Machine!" Shawn cried, heading out the door with Gus. "This is awesome, Gus! We'll have this figured out by the end of the day!"

"The end of the day?" said Gus skeptically, falling into step beside his best friend.

"Oh, come on," Shawn said. "I was a genius before, and now I have psychic powers on my side. Dude, we are on fire!"

"Shawn!"

Shawn and Gus stopped and turned to see Henry following them from the conference room.

"What, Dad?" said Shawn. "We're in a hurry."

Henry caught up to them. "Be careful, Shawn."

Shawn nodded, smiling. "Always." He turned and headed for the front door of the station, Gus following him to his car.

"You are not a genius, Shawn," said Gus. "Albert Einstein was a genius. You're just highly observational, like Sherlock Holmes."

"That's even better!" Shawn's face lit up as they reached the Echo. "'Shawn Spencer, the modern Sherlock Holmes.' I can already see the movie trailer."

Gus rolled his eyes, unlocking the doors. "But Sherlock Holmes wasn't psychic."

Shawn opened the passenger door, stepping around it and talking to Gus over the hood of the car. "True…" He shrugged. "'Shawn Spencer, the **psychic** Sherlock Holmes.'" He smiled at his friend as he climbed into the car and closed the door.

Gus just shook his head in irritation as he got into the driver's seat.

**************************************************************Psych**********************************************************************

The Echo pulled up to the used car dealership and parked. Gus and Shawn climbed out to find Lassiter and Juliet standing beside Lassiter's squad car, looking impatient.

"What took you two so long?" asked Lassiter.

"Gus said he knew a shortcut," Shawn told them. "Got us **so** lost."

Gus glared at him. "It was your shortcut, Shawn."

"Whatever, let's just get this over with," said Lassiter, leading the way inside the dealership.

Gus and Shawn brought up the rear, Shawn looking around to see what might give him a vision.

A man in a suit headed out of his office and approached them. "Welcome to Rainbow Motors. May I help you folks?"

Lassiter reached into his jacket and pulled his badge out, flashing it at the man. "Detective Carlton Lassiter, SBPD. Are you the manager?"

"Yes, I'm the general manger," he answered.

"We have some questions for you," Lassiter told him, stowing his badge away.

"Sure," the man nodded.

"Did you get a good look at the suspect?" asked Lassiter.

"Not really," the manager told them. "He never really came inside."

"He?" asked Lassiter, knowing from Shawn's vision that Hill's kidnapper was a woman.

"Well," said the manager. "I don't really know if it was a guy or not. I just assumed."

"Did you notice anything unusual before the robbery?" asked Lassiter.

"There was a commotion in the lobby," said the manager. "A bird had gotten inside and was pretty spooked. After we took care of it, an associate noticed the missing van in our lot."

Shawn had been subtly pulling off his gloves, and he now jumped forward suddenly. "Hi, Shawn Spencer. Head psychic for the SBPD." He held his hand out.

The other three had seen Shawn introduce himself this way dozens of times, but now it was actually legit.

The manager reached his hand out. "Nice to meet you. Did you—"

The manager clasped his hand onto Shawn's, shaking it. Shawn heard an alarmed cooing in the lobby and turned his head to see a pigeon flying around, banging into the windows to find a way out. The general manager came running out of his office to help his employees get the bird out the door. Everyone was completely preoccupied with the bird. Shawn saw something out of the corner of his eye, and he glanced over at the opposite windows to see Kara glancing inside at the commotion. She smiled and ran off toward the lot.

"—say psychic?" asked the general manager.

Shawn smiled at him, releasing his hand. "Yes, I did. I can understand if you are skeptical, but I need to look around the property."

The manager looked over at the detectives with a questioning look.

"He's legit," Juliet told the man.

The manager looked back at Shawn, nodding. "Sure, anything you need."

Shawn turned towards the door to the lot, easing it open with his elbow. He stepped outside as the others followed him. Shawn glanced down at the window next to the door, spotting some fingerprints low on the glass.

"Hah!" Shawn exclaimed, pointing the fingerprints out. He shook his head. "Should've put the gloves on before she touched the window…"

Shawn reached down and lined his fingers up with the prints, pushing his hand forward to touch the glass.

_Shawn watched as everyone in the building tried to catch the pigeon._

Good luck,_ he thought with a chuckle. _It's not as easy as it looks…

_Shawn smiled as he ran towards the lot, spotting the van he wanted. He glanced back to see that the bird was still making a scene. He pulled a Slim Jim from his jacket and slid it into the door in front of the window. The rod caught on something, and Shawn pulled up, unlocking the door._

_He opened the door and climbed inside, bringing the Slim Jim down on the key mechanism on the side of the steering wheel. After several blows, it popped off, revealing the rotation switch. He turned the switch, and the engine sputtered to life. He glanced over at the building to check if he was clear and then pulled the car out of the lot and onto the road, heading back towards town._

Shawn looked back at the others. "I think we might have to head back to Hill's apartment."

Lassiter groaned as he began heading for his car, Juliet right behind him. Shawn looked over at the entrance to the lot where he saw had seen Kara driving the van away from the dealership. He frowned and cocked his head to the side, narrowing his eyes.

"What is it?" asked Gus.

Shawn headed over towards the entrance, looking closely at the pavement. Lassiter and Juliet stopped on their way to the car to see what Shawn was doing.

"What is it, Shawn?" Juliet called.

Gus looked back at them and shrugged his shoulders before going back to watching Shawn.

Shawn approached the street just outside the dealership, kneeling down above a skid mark on the pavement. Shawn reached down and touched his fingers to the skid.

The daylight suddenly went out, and Shawn squinted in the darkness to try and make out where he was. When his eyes grew accustomed to the night, he found himself kneeling not two inches from the grill of an old Dodge van. Shawn stood up, looking down at the van.

It looked to be a late '70s model, and when he moved around the side of it to where a little bit of light was shining on it, he could see it was green.

"Bingo," Shawn muttered.

He turned and saw a log cabin not twenty feet away. He headed up the porch steps and over to a window. Inside, a man lay on a bed in front of a roaring fire in the fireplace.

"Parker Hill," Shawn said to himself.

Hill appeared to be tied down to the frame, covered with a quilt and unconscious.

"And cue Kathy Bates," Shawn mumbled.

Just then, a shadow moved in front of the window, and Shawn almost ducked out of sight when he remembered that he wasn't really there. Kara approached the bed, looking down at the author in the bed. She pulled the blanket up a little higher, tucking him in. Shawn stepped toward the door, walking right through it. He headed over to the table, looking through everything on the surface of it.

Papers lay scattered on the table, and his eyes scanned over what he could see.

_An address!_

Shawn found what looked like a Google printout of directions, and he looked closely at it, finding the address at the bottom.

"53 Green Lake…" Shawn trailed off, unable to see what the next word was.

Another piece of paper lay on top of the directions, obscuring the rest of the address and most of the directions. All he could see was that the next word started with S. Shawn reached towards the papers on top of it, trying to move them, but it was no use; his hand only went right through the table. He even knelt down, trying to blow the papers away. Of course, nothing happened.

Shawn sighed and got up from the pavement, turning towards Lassiter, Juliet and Gus.

"Good news," Shawn told them with a smile. "I got an address."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Eight

Shawn followed the two detectives into the station with his best friend.

"So, you didn't get the full address?" Lassiter boomed in anger.

"It's not like I have control over this stuff," said Shawn. "I can only tell you what my visions decided to show me."

"It is in Santa Barbara though, right?" asked Lassiter as he stopped and turned toward Shawn.

Shawn hesitated before shrugging. "I don't know."

Lassiter rolled his eyes before turning back around and beginning to head to his desk once again. "Real useful, Spencer."

Shawn frowned. "What am I supposed to do? Somehow interrupt my visions and go, 'Excuse me, Mr. Vision, but could you tell me every little detail about this that I need to know'?"

"It'd be a good start," Lassiter called, reaching his desk and sitting at it as Juliet stood next to him.

Shawn looked over at Gus, who shared his indignant look. Shawn looked back at Lassiter, starting to move towards him. "You know, if it weren't for me, you guys wouldn't even know he'd been kidnapped in the first—"

Shawn's right foot came down as he took another step.

_Kara charged towards the bed, wrapping her hands around Parker's neck. Parker struggled in Kara's grasp, unable to free himself from her stranglehold with his arms and legs tied to the bed._

Shawn brought his hand quickly to his throat, gasping for breath.

"Shawn?" asked Gus, putting his hand on Shawn's shoulder.

_Parker gasped harshly, managing to draw a slight breath into his lungs._

"_Write it!" screamed Kara. "Write it!"_

_Parker gasped another breath, thrashing his head back and forth._

"Shawn!" Juliet exclaimed.

Shawn's knees hit the floor as he clutched at his throat with both hands. Juliet and Lassiter both ran towards him as the chief came barreling out of her office. Shawn clenched his eyes shut as he tried to cough and inhale.

_Parker inhaled sharply before Kara clamped down tighter on his throat. Parker tried to draw a breath in, but nothing was getting past his crushed windpipe._

Shawn gasped harshly just as his throat closed completely.

"Shawn!" Gus yelled, hands on both of Shawn's shoulders. "What is it? What's going on?"

Shawn inhaled, but his chest wouldn't expand. Something was completely crushing his throat. His vision was beginning to blur as he tried desperately to breathe. This just wasn't fair. What good is a vision that kills you?

"Shawn, breathe!" shouted Juliet frantically.

_I can't!_ Shawn wanted to scream at her.

Shawn was beginning to see spots appearing in front of him. He fell forward weakly onto his hands and could suddenly suck in a huge breath. Wonderful oxygen flooded into his throat and lungs, and he took several moments just taking as many breaths as he could.

"What the hell was that, Spencer?" demanded Lassiter. "A vision?"

Shawn glared up at him as he coughed a couple times. "No, that was my idea of spicing up the workplace."

"Are you alright?" asked Juliet.

Shawn nodded.

"What did you see, Mr. Spencer?" asked Chief Vick.

"Hill," said Spencer. "But I don't know how. I didn't touch anything."

"Well, Parker came in to research for his detective novel," said the chief. "You probably stepped right where he walked. So, what did you see?"

"Kara was choking Hill," said Shawn.

"He's dead?" asked Vick.

Shawn frowned, trying to figure out if he saw the present or the future. He looked down at his right foot, still planted in the same spot. He moved his foot and reached his hand down to the same spot.

"Shawn—" began Juliet in warning.

Shawn touched the floor, propelled back into the same vision. Only this time, he was standing next to the bed as Kara strangled Parker. Shawn looked up and saw a television on in the corner by the table. It was the evening news for Santa Barbara. The clock and date in the corner said September 21, 6:13.

Shawn looked up at everyone. "Not yet. I saw the future…but not very far."

"How do you know?" asked Gus.

"The news was on," said Shawn. "Local Santa Barbara, 6:00 evening edition. The cabin is in Santa Barbara."

Lassiter headed back to his desk with Juliet, typing on the computer. Shawn stood up, walking over to the desk with Gus and the chief. A list of twenty addresses popped up on the screen.

"Any of these look familiar?" asked Lassiter.

Shawn looked down at the screen, shrugging. He reached a hand forward and touched the screen, but nothing happened.

He brought his hand away. "I don't know."

"We'll just have to assign teams, then," said Juliet.

Shawn looked down at some of the last addresses in the list. "Wait…" He narrowed his eyes as he thought back to his earlier vision. His hand reflexively went up to the side of his head.

Juliet frowned. "Okay, are you using that now whenever you get a vision, or is that your 'figuring things out' face?"

"Habit, sorry," said Shawn, digging into his memory.

He remembered the paper he'd found the address on: 53 Green Lake S… But then he looked closer, and just where the other papers covered up the address, he could see the start of the next letter.

Shawn looked down at the computer screen. "There. One of those. The next letter was clearly an 'h.' It's either Green Lake Shore Drive or Green Lake Shell Avenue."

"Okay," said Lassiter, standing. "O'Hara, take Spencer and head for Shore Drive. I'll take Guster to Shell Avenue. We got three hours! Move!"

"Come on, Shawn," said Juliet. "We'll take Gus' car."

Gus tossed Juliet his keys as he followed Lassiter out to his squad car. Shawn led Juliet out to the Echo, hopping into the passenger seat. Juliet buckled up and peeled out of the lot, heading up into the woods.

"Are you gonna be alright?" asked Juliet.

Shawn glanced over at her, frowning. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"No, I mean…" began Juliet uneasily, "if it gets rough in there, can I count on you to help? You're not gonna get stuck in a vision, are you?"

"Well…" said Shawn, digging into his jacket pocket and taking out the leather gloves, "that's what I got Gus for. Guy really knows how to shop."

"When we get there, I take point, you got that?" Juliet told him in a stern tone. "Stay out of the way unless it's necessary. I don't want you caught in the middle."

"Aw, Jules, I love it when you're so concerned about me," Shawn smiled.

"I mean it, Shawn," said Juliet. "Promise me."

"Yeah, yeah, I promise," Shawn assured her.

About half an hour later, Juliet pulled up to a stop when the cabin came into view with a green '77 van in front.

"Is that it?" asked Juliet.

Shawn nodded at the familiar cabin. "Yep."

"Ready?" asked Juliet.

"Like a Greyhound in a bunny store," said Shawn, slipping his gloves on and climbing out of the car.

Juliet laughed as she shook her head, getting out of the car and pulling her gun out. She led the way to the cabin, both of them squatting low to stay out of sight of the windows. They snuck their way o the corner of the cabin, and Juliet peeked around it to check the door. She looked back at Shawn and nodded. Juliet darted around the corner, rushing for the door and leaning up against the doorframe. Shawn was right behind her, standing on the other side of the doorway.

Juliet shared a look with him before moving in front of the door and kicking it in. She darted in, aiming her gun everywhere.

Shawn stared after her. "That was so hot…" He followed her in.

They couldn't see Kara anywhere, but Parker was tied up on the bed. Looking around once again to make sure she wasn't there, they headed over to Parker.

"Are you okay?" asked Juliet.

Parker nodded, a handkerchief wrapped around his head and stuffed into his mouth.

"We're gonna get you out of here," Juliet told him, holstering her gun and starting to work on the ropes.

Shawn headed around the bed to work on the other ropes, trying to get the knot undone with the gloves on. But maybe he should have taken them off. If he'd had the gloves off, he could have warned Juliet.

"Ah!" Juliet cried out as she was hit over the head.

"Jules!" Shawn shouted, rushing around the bed as Juliet collapsed.

Kara spun to face him as he charged her, grabbing the crowbar she held. Kara spun him around, slamming him into the wall. Shawn pushed the crowbar back towards Kara to get some distance between the two of them.

Big mistake…

Kara raised a leg, nailing Shawn right where it hurts. Shawn groaned in pain as he fell to his knees, too full of pain to stop Kara from swinging the crowbar at his head.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Nine

**I usually go back and forth with the stories one chapter at a time, but I've had this chapter written for three months. I couldn't wait. I had a lot more in here, but it was way too much, so I had to shorten it.**

"Shawn."

Shawn frowned, trying to open his eyes.

"Shawn."

Shawn groaned, managing to finally open his eyes. He was on the floor in what looked like a basement. His hands were tied behind his back, and his feet were tied together.

"Shawn, you okay?" asked Juliet from behind him.

"Yeah…" said Shawn, clenching his hands and feeling something different. "Ah, you gotta be kidding me. She stole my gloves. You okay, Jules?"

"Uh-huh," said Juliet. "Can't get out of these ropes, though."

"Well, good news, because I carry a pocketknife," said Shawn. He turned over onto his stomach to free the arm he'd been laying on. "Oh, this'll be fun…"

Shawn turned back over slightly onto his side, reaching his tied hands around his side towards his left front pocket of his jeans. He stretched as far as he could go, inching his fingers into the pocket and trying to grip the knife.

"Come on…" Shawn muttered, digging further into the pocket.

Finally, he was able to pull the knife out of his pocket, letting out a big breath.

"Alright, Jules, scoot over," said Shawn, turning back onto his side with his back facing Juliet and flipping the knife open. "I'll cut yours first."

Shawn scooted backwards, reaching back with his hands to search for Juliet's tied hands. The second Shawn's hands touched her skin, a spark ignited in Shawn's mind.

_Juliet walked into the derby rink with her skates in hand, heading for the center. As she reached the fold-up chairs in the center, Shawn sat up in them and looked at her._

"_Oh, hey, Jules," said Shawn. "What are you doing here?"_

"_I'm…returning my equipment," said Juliet, pointing at the skates. "What are __**you**__ doing here?"_

_Shawn shrugged. "Just hanging…You know, chillin'. I was actually feeling a little nostalgic. Remember when we cracked that case here? The criminals turned out to be roller-derby girls?" He chuckled a little._

_Juliet nodded a little. "Yeah, I remember that."_

"_Gosh…" said Shawn, looking down at his feet. He looked back up at Juliet. "Seems like it was just yesterday." He stood up, rolling forward on his skates a little._

_Juliet frowned. "Probably because it __**was**__ yesterday…Why are you wearing skates?"_

_Shawn looked down at his skate-clad feet. "Oh, yeah, look at that." He looked back up at Juliet. "Yes, I am. I don't know, uh…Guess I just thought it was a shame. We have this big beautiful track and no one to skate on it."_

_Juliet shrugged._

"_It's also been a long while since I've had a good blister," said Shawn._

"_Hm…" said Juliet._

_Shawn turned his finger, indicating that she should turn around. Juliet turned and looked up at the booth above the stands._

"_This will be a couples' skate," said the man silhouetted in the booth over the microphone. "Couples only."_

_Music began playing over the speakers as Juliet looked back at Shawn._

"_Come on," said Shawn._

_Juliet smiled. "Shawn…"_

_Juliet put on the skates and began skating around the rink with Shawn as the guy in the booth turned the spotlight on them. Shawn suddenly stumbled, flinging his arms out to catch himself. Juliet grabbed onto his arm to steady him._

"_Did you do that on purpose?" asked Juliet._

"_No," said Shawn. "Maybe…Okay, yes. Yes, I did." He looked down at her hand and scooted over closer, reaching for it._

"_No hands," Juliet told him, taking hers away._

_Shawn dropped his hand, and they skated side by side around the rink. A little ways along, their hands drifted towards each other, touching but not holding onto each other._

_**************************************************************************************PSYCH**************************************************************************************************_

_Shawn stood at a table in the lobby of the drive-thru movie theater next to the counter, a tray with a bucket of popcorn, two sodas and Neco wafers in front of him. He put the straws into the sodas and looked up, finding Juliet walking towards him._

"_Jules," said Shawn, surprised. "What are you doing here? What I mean is, you know, who's gonna fit Mr. Yang with her straitjacket and iron mask with face grill?"_

"_Something tells me there's an entire precinct of officers bidding on that job right now," Juliet told him._

"_Uh…" muttered Shawn, looking down at his tray. "Can I interest you in a, uh, Neco wafer?" He grabbed a small packet of them and held it up._

"_Shawn, can you just not talk for a few seconds?" asked Juliet, stepping a little closer._

_Shawn picked up his tray and stopped, staring at her._

"_Look…" began Juliet. "I just wanted to tell you that what you did today…I mean, I can't imagine being able to function at that level while your mom was…you know…"_

_Shawn shrugged a little._

_Juliet stepped closer to him. "I'm, uh…clearly not as good with words as you are, and, um…I know that things between us have been…a little complicated. And that there have probably been some mixed signals, mostly from me, with regards to the time that we spend together outside of the line of duty…"_

"_Look, Jules, I—" began Shawn._

"_Just, please just let me finish stumbling through this," Juliet interrupted. "I'm almost done. I promise." She took a deep breath. "What I'm saying…is that I think maybe the best things—the richest things—aren't supposed to come easily. And that sometimes, the moments that make the most sense happen when everything else doesn't, and…well…" she grabbed the tray from his hands, setting it down on the table next to them, "I think you deserve more than popcorn tonight." She took a step closer. "So, why don't you let me take you to dinner?"_

"_Detective O'Hara, are you asking me out on a date?" asked Shawn._

"_I am," said Juliet. "A proper one."_

"_Wow…" sighed Shawn, smiling a little. "I cannot believe this…"_

_Juliet smiled._

"_All this time, and…" began Shawn, "your timing is just awful."_

_Juliet frowned. "It is?"_

"_Yeah, just dreadful," said Shawn._

"_What?" said Juliet._

"_I can't go to dinner with you, Jules," Shawn told her. "I'm already on a date."_

"_You are?" asked Juliet. "What, here?"_

"_Yeah, right now. It's—it's weird. It's a little weird, but…uh…yeah…with Abigail."_

"_The one that got away."_

"_Yeah."_

_Juliet leaned forward and placed a kiss on his cheek. Shawn closed his eyes as Juliet pulled away, putting her hand on his cheek._

_Juliet lowered her hand. "Get out there. She's not gonna wait forever." She turned and began walking away._

_Shawn put his hand where she kissed him. "Jules!" He lowered his hand._

_Juliet turned back around._

"_I am so sorry…for snapping at you earlier," Shawn told her._

"_I know," said Juliet, turning and heading out of the lobby._

_Shawn dazedly picked his tray back up, heading for the door._

_*************************************************************PSYCH**********************************************************************************************_

_Juliet's phone rang on her desk as Gus stood next to her. She rushed to answer it. "Shawn!"_

_Shawn lay on a mechanic creeper, duct-taped to a chair. There were some rags taped to a gunshot wound in his shoulder. A mechanic with a gun stood over him._

"_This call is to say goodbye," Shawn said slowly._

"_Shawn, are you okay?" asked Juliet._

"_Try to get anything," Gus told her. "A location!"_

"_Shawn, where are you?" Juliet asked._

"_Don't," said Shawn. "Don't ask me any questions 'cause I can't say anything else. If you care about me, you'll understand."_

_Juliet sat down at her desk, worried. "I'm listening."_

"_I'm not gonna be able to have much of a future anymore, but…" began Shawn, "back at where we were, I'll be there. Okay?"_

"_Back?" asked Juliet. "I don't know what that means, Shawn. What are you talking about?"_

"_The wind chimes that I got you for your birthday…" said Shawn._

_The guy with the gun looked uneasily towards the door._

"_Every time you hear them from now on, that'll be me," said Shawn._

"_Okay, Shawn, first of all, you are going to be fine," Juliet told him. "We're going to find you, okay? Don't worry."_

"_Okay, this is supposed to be a goodbye call," said the guy with the gun. "Now, tell her you love her, and let's go!"_

"_Listen, before I go, I have to say one more thing," said Shawn._

"_Of course, Shawn," said Juliet. "What is it?"_

"_Say it!" hissed the guy with the gun._

"_I need you to know that…" began Shawn, "I love you."_

_Juliet sat there, completely stunned. "Uh…Shawn…I think that I—"_

"_Goodbye, Abigail," Shawn interrupted, hanging up the phone._

_************************************************************************PSYCH*******************************************************************_

_Gus walked into Juliet's hospital room. "Excuse me. Shawn?"_

_Shawn looked up at him, wearing a surgical mask. "Not now, Gus."_

"_This'll only take a minute," said Gus._

"_Can it wait?" said Shawn pointedly. "I'm about to tell Juliet something important. Why don't you go down to the cafeteria and get us some tri-colored Jello."_

"_Shawn—" said Gus._

"_Please!" Shawn interrupted. "I've gotta get through this, man! Come on!" He looked back at Juliet. "Uh…" He ripped off the surgical mask. "Look, Jules, there are things that you need to know, and I have to say them."_

_Gus stepped further into the room. "Juliet, you don't have the Thornburg virus."_

"_What?" said Shawn and Juliet._

"_Are you kidding?" asked Juliet._

"_No, Dr. Raymond just told me," said Gus._

_They glanced over at the window, where Dr. Raymond gave her a thumbs-up._

"_Oh, my God!" exclaimed Juliet._

"_Looks like you had more time than you thought," said Gus, giving Shawn a look._

"_Oh, my God!" Juliet jumped out of the hospital bed, hugging Shawn. "Oh! I'm so happy!" She began ripping the wires and IV off. "I'm not going to die in this disgusting room!"_

"_That's so—That is so good!" said Shawn. "But, uh-uh, I still wanna say what I was gonna say, if that's okay."_

"_Sure," said Juliet._

"_Okay, uh, Jules," began Shawn as Gus slipped out of the room, "uh…How do I wanna say this? Okay. You know how when we were kids, there were all those cool prizes at the bottom of cereal boxes?"_

_Juliet smiled. "Yeah."_

"_Okay," said Shawn. "Well, there are two kinds of kids. There's the kid who flipped the box over and opened it from the bottom and grabbed the prize right away. And then there was the kid who waited patiently and ate bowl after bowl of cereal until the prize just tumbled out on its own. There's also a third kid named Mikey who'll eat anything, including the prize. Uh, he's not really important right now."_

_Juliet smiled. "Okay…And?"_

"_I didn't wait. I didn't wait for my decoder ring or-or my Frankenberry action figure when I was a kid, so…what am I waiting for now? All I know is that I don't wanna miss out on the prize."_

"_What are you trying to say, Shawn?" asked Juliet._

"_That I…" began Shawn._

"_Hm?" asked Juliet._

_Shawn stared at her. "That I…I don't know…"_

_***************************************************************PSYCH***********************************************************************************************************_

_Shawn stood in the park, wearing a trench coat as the special ops team led the suspect away._

_Gus walked up to Shawn. "I told you that newspaper thing was a dumb idea."_

"_Are you at all serious?" said Shawn. "We just captured a dangerous international spy. You're hung up on the newspaper bit?"_

_Juliet leaned against the table in the van, listening to their conversation through the wire Shawn forgot he was wearing._

"_No, I'm hung up on the fact that you've been obsessed with this woman this whole time," said Gus. "She makes the ultimate move on you, and you shut her down? What's wrong with you? That makes no sense! Are you crazy?"_

"_I know," said Shawn. "It doesn't make any sense. Maybe I am crazy. All I can tell is that just now in that moment, all I could…think about was Jules."_

_Juliet frowned, perking up at that and moving around the table towards the speaker._

"_I just can't wrap myself around the fact that she's dating Declan," said Shawn. "It actually…It's actually killing me."_

"_Shawn, that is not fair," Gus told him._

"_I know," said Shawn. "I know it's not fair. And you're right. She likes this guy. Who am I to stand in the way?"_

"_Exactly," said Gus._

"_You think I don't want her to be happy?" said Shawn. "I want her to be happy. But…" He looked up at Gus. "Serious Shawn moment here. I wanna be happy, too. And for some reason, I can't imagine that happening without Juliet."_

_Juliet stared at the speaker, stunned._

_****************************************************************PSYCH******************************************************************************_

_Shawn stood in the foyer of Declan's house as Declan and Gus headed for another room._

_Juliet walked into the foyer. "Shawn."_

_Shawn turned around. "Hey."_

"_Hi," said Juliet. "Why are you standing in Declan's foyer all by yourself?"_

_Shawn nodded. "Creepy?"_

_Juliet shrugged. "Sort of."_

"_Yeah…" muttered Shawn._

"_Shawn, you have solved a lot of cases for the SBPD, but this one was particularly impressive," said Juliet. "I mean, Bolivian embassies and international espionage. How did you and Gus do it all by yourselves?"_

"_Well, I'm not gonna lie to you, Jules," said Shawn. "It was difficult. But now that it's over, I'm ready to put 'Freelance Spy' on my list of special skills."_

"_Well, here's a mystery you can solve for me. Yesterday, I came here after work, and I found three crème brûlée dishes by Declan's computer. Any idea who could've eaten all of those?"_

"_Mm…I would say that Declan has an enormous sweet tooth, and that shouldn't be ignored, Jules. Sugar is a gateway drug."_

"_Hm…Well, I guess then it will remain an open case."_

"_Guess so…"_

"_Well, I was just about to head out and do some shopping for the trip."_

_Shawn nodded. "Right, the—the trip, of course. Yeah, uh…have a—have a great four days off, Jules."_

"_It's two weeks, Shawn."_

"_Wow…That's lengthy. That's significant. That's…a real amount of vacation time."_

_They stared at each other for a moment._

"_Have an amazing trip," said Shawn softly. "Okay? Promise me."_

_Juliet nodded._

"'_Cause, you know, they say that, uh, these kind of trips are once in a lifetime experiences, and they're even better when you have someone you care about to share them with," said Shawn. "And…you do."_

_Juliet looked sadly at him._

"_Take lots of pictures," said Shawn. "Not of sights. Don't take pictures of buildings. Take pictures of moments. That's what matters. Capture 'em here…" he put a hand to the side of his head, "and hold onto 'em here." He put his other hand over his heart before lowering his hands and smiling. "At least that's what I would do. I don't know. You might take blurry photos of your espresso at some random café—"_

_Juliet suddenly closed the distance between the two of them and kissed Shawn. The two of them kissed for several moments before breaking apart and staring at each other._

_*********************************************************PSYCH********************************************************************************************************_

_Juliet stood at an overlook, staring at the sights._

_Shawn walked up next to her at the railing. "Hey." He pointed at the suspension bridge in front of them. "You know, this bridge was built by porcupines. They chewed the girders with their little teeth. Apparently, there was, like, a rabies outbreak during construction. They tried to unionize—"_

"_Shawn, can we not do this right now?" said Juliet. "I'm really upset with you. We just—we missed the moment. Some people just don't fit."_

"_Yeah, but those are Lego people," said Shawn. "And how could they? I mean, they make so many different sizes for all the different sets. They're in a box, they're in a bucket, the kids get 'em mixed up, and don't even get me started on Duplos. Those things are twice the size, you know, so babies won't eat them."_

_Juliet smiled. "That's funny. It's __**always**__ funny. Can we not do this right now? It's okay. The way things are—it's okay. I just __**really**__ need to sort this out on my own right now."_

_Shawn stared at her for a moment before nodding and walking away. He suddenly stopped and headed back over to Juliet._

"_Can I just say what I came here to say, please?" said Shawn._

_Juliet turned towards him._

_Shawn turned to Juliet. "I have a motorcycle."_

_Juliet frowned. "Yes, you do."_

"_Yes, I do," said Shawn. "And you know what? It is the purest form of freedom that I have ever experienced. You zip through traffic, you park anywhere, you never have to take anyone to the airport, you certainly don't have to help anyone move. It's __**easily **__the best purchase I've ever made in my life. And I have never regretted it. Not for one second."_

"_Great. You love your motorcycle. Is there a point to this?"_

"_Yeah, there's a point. The point is, since I've met you…I…I've been thinking about getting a car."_

_Juliet smiled at him. "And you're not thinking something practical, or sensible—"_

"_God, no. I'm throwing in the towel altogether."_

_Shawn placed his hands on either side of her face and closed in for a kiss. The two of them kissed passionately for several minutes._

_**************************************************************PSYCH**************************************************************************************_

_Juliet sat at the table in the interrogation room, staring at the paper in front of her._

_Shawn walked into the doorway. "Hey, there you are. I finished writing my statement twenty minutes ago. Gus is in the car, engine on, wheels pointed towards pancakes. Please tell me you're in."_

"_I can't write this," said Juliet. "I thought if I just had a moment to myself, I could, but it's just living it all over again, and I can't."_

"_Alright," said Shawn, turning and closing the door before heading over to the table next to her. "This is what you write: We did it." He sat down adjacent to her at the table. "Maybe add an exclamation point if that doesn't feel too excessive."_

"_I could quite possibly be elated very soon, but part of me feels like we are just marking time till the next crazy rolls in," said Juliet._

"_Well, of course we are. But the next crazy is gonna be small potatoes compared to Yin. Plus, you have me now. I know I may not appear that physically imposing at first blush, but it turns out, I have the tenacity of a Swiss fox and the instincts of a dragonfly."_

"_You realize one of those is a rabbit and the other is an insect?"_

"_Yes, that's why I chose them," said Shawn. He reached forward and grabbed Juliet's hand, holding it in both of his. "What I'm trying to tell you is that I would protect you."_

"_And I would protect you right back."_

"_I think you're swell."_

_Juliet smiled._

_Shawn leaned forward and kissed her hand before standing. "I'll see you tonight." He leaned forward and kissed her._

_*****************************************************************PSYCH*************************************************************************************************_

_Gus stood at the front desk of the resort._

_The manager walked up and held out a Ziploc bag with a Nintendo inside. "We found this in one of the dumpsters out back of the resort. I believe this is one of the items stolen from Mr. Spencer's room."_

_Gus opened the bag and took the game out._

"_You know, I've never seen a grown man so upset over the theft of a toy that wasn't his child's," said the manager._

"_We take our handheld entertainment very seriously," said Gus, handing the bag back._

"_Well, that's your business," said the manager._

_Gus walked away from the front desk, trying to turn on the game. Nothing was happening, so he turned it over to check the battery, but it made a weird sound. He shook it a little, and it rattled. He opened up the door of the battery area, but there wasn't a battery inside. In the space where the battery was supposed to be was a diamond engagement ring._

_Gus stared in shock as he pulled the ring out. He turned towards where Shawn and Juliet were standing in the souvenir shop, checking out some items. Gus stared at his best friend and looked back down at the ring._

_*******************************************************************************PSYCH***********************************************************************************************_

_Juliet and Shawn walked along the sidewalk near the beach at night, dressed in nice evening clothes. Juliet had her arm hooked through Shawn's arm._

"_You know, for being a psychic, I never really saw this coming," Shawn told Juliet._

_Juliet frowned. "What, you and me?"_

"_Well, there was that one vision I told you about of us getting married," said Shawn. "It could still have been to do with that case, but look at us now." He smiled over at her._

_Juliet smiled back._

"_No, I mean…me," said Shawn. "I never really pictured myself in a serious relationship."_

_Juliet frowned again. "Never?"_

"_Not really," Shawn told her. "All the girls I ever hooked up with, I never really settled down with them. And by settle down, I mean go on more than one date."_

_Juliet smiled as she reached over with her other arm to lean against him as they walked._

"_But I…I do see something," said Shawn, frowning as he put a hand to the side of his head. "Something in your future. It's shiny…" he lowered his hand, reaching into his pocket, "…and round…and given to you by a very handsome man." He held up a ring in front of her._

_Juliet froze as she stared at the diamond ring._

_Shawn turned towards Juliet, taking hold of her hand. "Jules…I can't imagine a better or happier life…than one that you're in. I've tried for years to find your replacement…"_

_Juliet smiled, laughing a little._

"…_but it's pretty much impossible," said Shawn, looking her in the eye. "There's only one Juliet O'Hara." He reached his other hand up to hold her hand also. "I…and the voices in my head—"_

_Juliet smiled in laughter again._

"—_have been wanting to ask you a question for a few weeks now," said Shawn. He paused for a while as tears began to shine in Juliet's eyes. "Willy you marry me?"_

_Juliet smiled as a tear fell down her cheek. "Yes…Yes."_

_Shawn smiled as he slipped the ring onto her finger._

_****************************************************************PSYCH**************************************************************************************************_

_The priest held his Bible close as Juliet, in a wedding gown, and Shawn, in a tuxedo, stood in front of a church auditorium._

"_I now pronounce you man and wife," said the priest. "You may kiss the bride."_

_Shawn reached forward, placing his hands on either side of Juliet's face and leaning forward. The two of them kissed passionately as the audience in the pews applauded._

Shawn froze, yanking his hands away from Juliet's. He stared at the wall in shock.

_Is that really our future? _Shawn wondered. _Is that…real?_

"Shawn?" asked Juliet. "What is it?"

Shawn just stared straight ahead, shocked.

"Shawn, what did you see?" asked Juliet, guessing as to what had happened.

Shawn shook himself, focusing on the priority. "Nothing. Not important right now." He reached for Juliet's hands, finding the rope and putting the pocketknife to it.

After a minute or so, the rope broke, and Juliet sat up.

"Here," said Shawn, holding the pocketknife out.

Juliet grabbed it and went about cutting through the ropes on her feet. Shawn stared at the wall, going over the visions in his head.

"Okay," said Juliet, grabbing hold of Shawn's hands and working through the rope.

The rope broke, and Shawn pulled his hands out from behind his back as Juliet worked on his feet. When the ropes were gone, Shawn and Juliet headed for the door. Shawn opened it and peered around the doorframe, but no one was there.

"Come on," said Shawn. "Let's get out of here."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Ten

Shawn led Juliet down the hallway towards a small staircase that led to some cellar doors. Shawn reached up and pushed at the doors, but they wouldn't budge. He turned and put his shoulder against them, but it looked like they were locked from the outside.

"No go," said Shawn. "She didn't by any chance leave you your gun, did she?"

Juliet shook her head. "Already checked."

Shawn frowned, looking down at her. "Cell phone?"

A thump sounded from the other side of the doors. Shawn and Juliet jumped, backing down the stairs. Something began hitting something metallic on the doors, probably a chain keeping the doors locked. Shawn and Juliet headed back to the room they'd woken up in, peering around the doorframe to watch the cellar doors. After several hits, it sounded like something broke, and the doors were flung open.

"Shawn?" a voice called into the darkness in a hushed tone. "Juliet?"

"Gus?" said Shawn, heading back to the doors with Juliet.

"Are you guys okay?" asked Gus, who had an axe in his hand.

They spotted Lassiter standing at the top of the stairs, keeping a lookout with his gun.

"Yeah, we're fine," said Shawn.

"We didn't find them at the other address, so we came here," said Gus.

"Have you seen her?" asked Juliet, heading up the stairs to join Lassiter with Shawn right behind her.

"No," Lassiter told her. "We were just about to head inside when we saw someone shoving at these locked doors."

Shawn raised his hand. "Yeah, that'd be me."

"O'Hara, you head around back," said Lassiter, handing her his spare gun. "I'll go through the front. Spencer, Guster, you two stay put."

"But—" began Shawn.

Lassiter and Juliet headed off around the cabin, leaving the two of them standing there.

"Really?" said Shawn. "We only led them to the right location." He leaned back against the cabin wall in annoyance.

"_Drop the gun!" yelled Lassiter, aiming his gun at Kara. "Drop the gun!"_

"_Get away from me!" yelled Kara hysterically._

"_Kara, drop the gun!" yelled Lassiter. "I will shoot!"_

_Kara pulled the trigger, shooting Lassiter in the chest. Juliet lunged for the gun, but Kara struggled with her for a moment before the gun went off, and Juliet fell to the ground with a gunshot wound in her stomach._

"NO!" Shawn yelled, pushing himself away from the wall and rushing towards the front door.

"Shawn!" Gus yelled, rushing after him.

Shawn bolted for the front door, barging in to find Kara wrestling with Juliet for her gun. Lassiter had been knocked into a table, trying to recover. He grabbed his gun from the floor, climbing to his feet, just as Kara hit Juliet with her elbow, grabbing her gun.

"Kara!" Shawn shouted, rushing into the room.

Kara backed up, aiming her gun at everyone. Shawn came to a sudden stop, Gus bumping into him from behind, and put his hands up.

"Drop the gun!" Lassiter yelled, aiming his gun at Kara.

"Get out!" yelled Kara.

"Drop the gun, or I will shoot!" yelled Lassiter.

Shawn narrowed his eyes, watching Kara's finger tighten on the trigger.

"Kara, I'd do what he says if I were you," said Shawn.

Kara looked over at him. "You get out, too! All of you! I'm trying to work!"

Shawn exchanged a look with Gus, who now stood next to him. "Wow, she's really out of her gourd."

Kara pointed the gun at him. "Shut up!"

Shawn took a step back from her, staring at the barrel of the gun. "No offense."

"He needs to do it correctly!" yelled Kara.

Shawn nodded at her. "Of course. 'Cause…that's important…"

Kara nodded. "Yes! It is!"

"Okay," said Shawn. "Why don't you just drop the gun, and we'll get him to do it."

"He needs to do it!" said Kara.

"Yes, he does," said Shawn. "So, why don't you just put the gun down and tell him?"

Kara's hand shook around the gun. "It's not my fault! He brought this on himself!"

Shawn nodded. "I'm sure he did."

"He wasn't doing it right," said Kara. She looked over at Parker Hill on the bed, who lay there watching the drama unfold. "That's not how the story goes!"

Lassiter made a sudden move for her, but she saw it out of the corner of her eye. She swung the gun towards Lassiter, and in her panicked state, her finger squeezed the trigger. Shawn threw his arms over his head as the bullet went off. There was a yell from beside him, and Shawn turned to see Gus on the floor, a gunshot wound in his gut.

"Gus!" Shawn yelled, rushing to his side.

Lassiter wrestled Kara to the ground, grabbing the gun from her and cuffing her. Gus gasped in pain.

"Gus, breathe," said Shawn, putting his hands over the wound to try to stop the bleeding. "It's gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay." He looked at Juliet, who was already on the cabin's phone. "Call an ambulance!"

"Shawn…" gasped Gus, wincing.

"Hang in there, buddy," said Shawn. "Help is on the way. Just hang in there…"

Gus' eyes closed, and he stopped breathing.

"Gus?" said Shawn.

Gus wasn't moving.

"Gus!" yelled Shawn, shaking him. "Gus, no!"

************************************************************SPN**********************************************************************************************************************

Gus collided into Shawn's back, watching as he raised his hands. Gus stepped over next to him, looking up at Kara aiming the gun at all four of them.

"Drop the gun!" Lassiter yelled, aiming his gun at Kara.

"Get out!" yelled Kara.

"Drop the gun, or I will shoot!" yelled Lassiter.

Gus glanced over at Shawn, watching as Shawn narrowed his eyes in concentration at Kara.

"Kara, I'd do what he says if I were you," Shawn told her.

Kara looked over at him. "You get out, too! All of you! I'm trying to work!"

Shawn looked over at Gus, exchanging an awkward look. "Wow, she's really out of her gourd."

Kara pointed the gun over at him. "Shut up!"

Shawn took a step back from her, and his head suddenly dropped. He gasped a little as he looked up at Kara's gun and then back at Gus with wide, scared eyes. He looked over at Kara once again, and Gus could practically see the wheels in his head turning.

"Drop the gun!" Lassiter yelled.

"I did nothing wrong!" Kara yelled.

Shawn stepped forward suddenly, waving his arms out to his sides. "Of course you didn't! I mean, there's nothing wrong with looking out for someone. I mean, that's all you were doing, right?"

Shawn seemed to be drawing Kara's attention towards him for some reason. As he talked, he moved to the side away from the others, as though trying to get them out of the path of a potential bullet.

"If his story flopped, he'd be a failure," Shawn went on. "You were just trying to fix his story. There's no harm in that! I mean, am I right?" He looked back at the others, and Gus could see a mischievous look in his eyes—a look Gus had seen many times before. Shawn looked back at Kara. "I mean, I would do anything for my pal Gus. I can understand what you were doing." All the while, he was taking small steps closer towards her. "Who could blame you?"

Kara's gun hand was getting shakier and shakier. Gus glanced over out of the corner of his eye to see Lassiter inching closer and closer.

"Nobody, that's who," said Shawn, his gestures getting more and more wild.

Gus didn't get it. It was like Shawn was _trying_ to agitate the girl.

"Nobody can blame you for looking out for a friend," Shawn rambled on. "You're just—"

Gus could see Shawn's muscles tense as he talked, his eyes watching the gun closely. Kara suddenly tightened her finger on the trigger, and the gun went off. Shawn spun halfway to the side, and the bullet went whizzing past him, hitting the door. Lassiter took her momentary distraction as his cue and dove for her, wrestling the gun away from her.

Shawn took great gulps of air, looking over at the bullet hole in the door and back at the others. "Whew! Oh, man, for a moment there, I thought that wouldn't work!"

"You were _trying_ to get her to shoot you?" said Gus incredulously as Lassiter cuffed Kara. "Are you insane?"

"Hey, I may use _real_ psychic abilities now, but I still have a trick or two up my sleeve," smirked Shawn.

"That was incredibly reckless, Shawn," said Juliet as she picked the gun up and holstered it. "You shouldn't have done it."

"Yeah!" said Gus, agreeing with Juliet.

"Oh, so, I should have just let her shoot you?" Shawn asked Gus.

Gus frowned. "She was gonna shoot me?"

"Dead as a doornail," Shawn nodded.

Gus patted Shawn on the shoulder with a smile. "Good work, buddy. Never doubted you for a minute."

Lassiter pulled Kara to her feet, pushing her out the door. Juliet headed over to the bed, untying Parker. Shawn and Gus went over to help her.

Juliet looked up at Shawn working at the ropes. "So, you wanna tell me what you saw down there in the cellar?"

Shawn looked up at her, hesitating awkwardly.

Gus frowned. "You saw something, Shawn?"

Shawn looked over at him with a nervous expression on his face and then back at Juliet. "Later."

Gus watched him closely as he went back to untying the ropes. Something was on Shawn's mind, and he would get to the bottom of it before the end of the day.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Eleven

Shawn got Parker's hand out of the rope, looking over to see Gus working on the feet and Juliet working on the other hand.

"Thank you," said Parker.

"Oh, you talk!" exclaimed Shawn. "I was starting to think she'd chopped out your voice box."

Parker chuckled a little.

"She didn't do anything like that, did she?" asked Shawn. "Smash your foot with a sledgehammer?"

Parker smiled. "Thankfully, she doesn't take after Kathy Bates." He rubbed his wrists as Juliet got the other free. "How did you find me?"

"Well, my friend, you have the luck to live in a town whose local authorities employ a psychic," Shawn told him.

Parker frowned. "A psychic? What?"

"Shawn is a psychic," said Gus, nodding towards Shawn as he untied the other foot.

Parker's brows raised in interest. "A psychic? Do you have premonitions, sense things or is it more of a seeing ghosts thing?"

"I touch stuff, and then I see things," said Shawn. "That's about it."

"Really?" said Parker as he sat up. "How did you get that ability?"

Shawn began to answer when Gus suddenly spoke up.

"He was born with it," said Gus, giving him a look.

Shawn glanced over at Juliet, who nodded a little. He looked down at Parker. "Yeah, I've had it my whole life. You see, everyone is born with a minimal amount of midichlorians."

Parker frowned. "Isn't that from _Star Wars_?"

Shawn nodded. "Yes, it's true. George Lucas stole it from research he was doing about psychic powers. In truth, midichlorians are present in every living being."

Juliet and Gus rolled their eyes at each other, smiling fondly at Shawn's story.

"There are very few people born with a higher midichlorian count than normal human beings, except instead of allowing that person to access 'The Force,'—" Shawn made air quotes, "it causes psychic abilities to come forth. I call it phsysics."

"Phsysics…" said Parker. "Right…" He stood from the bed. "You know, I'd love to talk to you sometime on how your process works. You see, I'm working on a book about a psychic drawn into a police investigation."

"Well, that sounds original," said Shawn. "They've only done about a dozen movies about it."

"No, no, my book will be completely different," said Parker. "See, the book starts out as the psychic helping the police out. But at the end of the book, it's revealed that he wasn't a psychic all along. He'd been faking it the whole time. He was just wicked smart, like Sherlock Holmes."

Shawn, Juliet and Gus all exchanged looks and secretive smiles.

"Oh, yeah, that **is** original," Shawn told him. "Let me know how that turns out."

Shawn helped Parker up and out the door, taking him to Gus' car. Parker climbed into the backseat of the Echo.

"Shawn!" Juliet called.

Shawn turned as Gus got in the driver's seat. "Yeah, Jules?"

Juliet walked up to him. "You, uh…you did good in there." He put a hand on his arm.

Shawn's field of vision was filled with images of the two of them kissing on that overlook in Canada. He smiled at Juliet. "Thanks."

Juliet smiled at him and turned to head to the squad car where Lassiter was waiting. Shawn watched her go before turning and getting in the Echo. Gus pulled the car away from the cabin and back towards town.

************************************************SPN**************************************************************

Shawn walked into the station, approaching Lassiter's desk, where he was hard at work.

"Lassie!" Shawn exclaimed.

Lassiter rolled his eyes, looking up at Shawn. "What do you want, Spencer?"

Shawn frowned, throwing his arms out. "That's it? Not even a 'good work, partner'?"

"You're not my partner," said Lassiter. "You're my never-ending nightmare."

"Aw, Lassie, I get all tingly when you say such nice things about me."

"Go away, Spencer," said Lassiter, looking back down at his computer.

"Not until you finally acknowledge that I'm a psychic," said Shawn. "Come on, Lassie. I know it's on the tip of your—"

"You're psychic," said Lassiter. "Now, go."

Shawn stared at him for a moment. "Wow. You actually said it. That was amazing. Okay, now run into the chief's office and bark like a dog."

Lassiter stood abruptly from his chair, glaring at Shawn in irritation. Shawn quickly left his desk and walked over to Juliet's desk.

Juliet shook her head good-naturedly at him. "You know, one of these days, he's going to snap when you do that."

"Do what?" asked Shawn, feigning an innocent frown. "All I said was that he was the best head detective in the southwestern California area. Somehow, he took that in a bad way."

"Yeah, I'm sure," said Juliet.

"So, Kara confess why she kidnapped Parker?" asked Shawn.

"Just the same thing she keeps saying," said Juliet. "That she was helping him write. But we found out that she has a history of mental illness: delusional disorder. Her doctor had her on medication, but it looks like she either stopped taking it or her body quit responding to it. He has her on a different medication now in a short-term mental facility."

"Wow, she really **was** crazy?" asked Shawn.

Juliet frowned. "You didn't see that in any of your visions?"

"Well, in the visions when I was in her shoes, I didn't feel anything was wrong—other than wanting to kidnap Hill," said Shawn.

Juliet shrugged. "Well, someone with a delusional disorder feels that whatever their delusion is, is normal, so you were probably influenced by that."

Shawn shrugged. "Maybe."

"Mr. Spencer."

Shawn turned to see the chief at her office door.

"I need to see you in my office," said Chief Vick.

Shawn waved a hand. "Be right there."

Chief Vick turned and disappeared into her office.

Shawn quickly spun towards Juliet. "Okay, what did I do?"

"Well, it can't be anything too bad," Juliet told him. "I mean, you just stopped a psychotic kidnapper for the department."

"True," said Shawn. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck," called Juliet as Shawn made his way to the office.

"Mr. Spencer," said Chief Vick as he walked in. "I just wanted to give you our thanks for your help on this case." She handed him a check in an envelope. "Good work."

Shawn accepted the check. "Thanks, Chief. See ya around." He turned to head out.

"One more thing," said Chief Vick, sitting down at her desk.

Shawn slowly turned back to her. "Yeah?"

"I can't help but notice that your visions lately have…evolved," said Chief Vick. "They seem to have grown extensively."

Shawn shrugged. "Well, you never know what the spirit world is gonna bring."

Chief Vick nodded. "Uh-huh…Is there anything you wanna tell me, Shawn?"

Shawn stared at her for a moment before rolling his eyes. "Who talked to you? Gus? No, it was Lassie, wasn't it? I knew it."

"No one talked to me, Mr. Spencer," said Chief Vick. "I am capable of deductive reasoning."

Shawn sighed. "Do I really have to?"

"That depends on you."

Shawn hesitated for a moment before walking up to the desk. "When I was attacked and went to the hospital last week, I, uh…I woke up in the hospital…with psychic abilities."

Chief Vick frowned. "You what?"

Shawn sighed again. "I never had psychic abilities before the attack. It was all an act. Lassiter was gonna throw me in jail for calling in tips, so I had to make up a story. He wasn't believing me when I said that I just figured it out."

"You've solved all these cases through honest detective work?" asked Chief Vick.

"Yes," said Shawn.

"So…you lied to the department," stated Chief Vick.

Shawn nodded. "I know you have to follow through with some…disciplinary action or whatever, but please leave Gus out of it. He didn't want any part of it in the first place. This was all me."

Chief Vick was silent for a moment, and Shawn's heart began to pound.

_This is it, _said Shawn. _I'm going to jail. My father will be so proud._

"Well…" said Chief Vick, "I did say **hindering**a police investigation was a criminal offense. Under the terms of Santa Barbara law, you have never actually hindered an investigation."

Shawn's eyes widened. "I'm free to go?"

Chief Vick gave him a smile and nodded. "You're free to go."

Shawn smiled. "Thanks, Chief." He turned and headed to the door, looking back at Chief Vick one last time.

Chief Vick gave him another smile as she went back to her work. Shawn walked out the door as Juliet stood and headed over to him.

"Well?" asked Juliet.

Shawn shrugged. "She wants to give me the key to the city."

Juliet smiled as she sighed. "Only the mayor can do that, Shawn."

"Oh, well, I'll wait," said Shawn, smiling at her. "No, uh, she…she knows."

Juliet frowned.

"About me not having psychic powers and then having them," said Shawn.

Juliet frowned further. "Did Lassiter tell her?"

"No, actually, she figured part of it out on her own," Shawn told her.

"Oh," said Juliet.

"Yeah…" said Shawn.

"So…" said Juliet, looking at him expectantly.

Shawn nodded awkwardly, not sure what she wanted. "So…"

"That vision you had in the cellar," said Juliet. "You wanna tell me what you saw? You seemed pretty upset by it."

"No, no, no," said Shawn quickly. "Not upset—definitely not upset. Just, uh…surprised…" He stared at Juliet for a long moment.

"Well?" asked Juliet, smiling at him. "Was it about me?"

Shawn smiled at her slowly. "Yeah…"

"And?" asked Juliet, raising her eyebrows in anticipation.

Shawn stared at her for a while, thinking it through. Finally, he smiled at her. "You are gonna make a great mom some day."

Juliet smiled. "Really? I had a kid?"

Shawn nodded. "Yep."

"Boy or girl?" she asked.

"Aw, Jules, you know I can't spoil something like that," said Shawn.

"Well, did you see who the father was?" asked Juliet. "Or was it…was I not married?"

"Well, you were wearing a wedding ring," said Shawn. "But, no, I didn't see who the husband was."

"Well, with any luck, he'll be the kind of guy I deserve," said Juliet.

"Let's hope so," said Shawn. "Maybe he'll be a ruggedly handsome guy with a sociable personality and snarky comments who helps catch bad guys."

Juliet smiled at him. "Well, I could never be that lucky."

Shawn looked her in the eye for a moment or so, his smile lingering fondly. "You never know, O'Hara."

They shared a smile for a moment before Shawn began to head for the front door.

"See ya, Jules," he said quietly.

Juliet waved at him before going back to her desk. Shawn turned and headed for the door, descending the stairs to the street. He smiled as he glanced back at the station real quick. Part of him had wanted to tell her, but he had thought better of it. Maybe—just maybe—if he tried not to change too much, things would still play out the way they were supposed to.

**The End!**

**Hope you enjoyed!**


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